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Conciliatory officials admonish soldiers, plan for trial after Lakes atrocities

By Manyang Mayom

September 12, 2008 (RUMBEK) – Senior political and administration officials in Lakes State and the Government of South Sudan came forward with apologies over the last week attacks on civilians in Rumbek town on Monday and Tuesday.

SPLA soldier
SPLA soldier
Lakes State Governor Daniel Awet Akot said on Wednesday that he is annoyed that southern soldiers looted communities and got out of hand. He ensured Rumbek community that he regrets disarmament atrocities. “The military has laws and those soldiers who committed crimes must to be brought to face justice,” he said.

Seven people were shot and wounded on Monday in the market of Rumbek, the capital of Lakes state, making residents afraid to leave their homes, and two more men were wounded on Tuesday as they were on their way from Pacong to Rumbek.

The government has apologized to those harmed during the search for firearms, said the governor. He further said that the disarmament is suspended but that county commissioners, chiefs and Gelweng leaders will still conduct peaceful disarmament.

Akot blamed police for delaying obtaining detailed reports on properties looted on Monday, which he says has limited the state government’s ability to take action.

Another apology came on Wednesday from Samuel Mathiang Keer, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party representative in Rumbek. Speaking over local Radio station FM-98, SPLM State Secretary Keer said that “we have to accept our mistakes. We had losses of life of our people and this is a great loss to SPLM party; the loss of one person in the party is a great challenge to the party because we are people’s party.”

Southern officials’ conciliatory tone comes as it becomes increasingly clear that the recent violence had little directly to do with instances of unwilling disarmament. The military forces carrying out disarmament distorted the content of disarmament orders, according to Keer.

“There is nobody among the victims found to have rejected to surrender his guns. These people were shot without reasons. We talked to the victims and all what we heard from the victims are statements which are not connected to guns,” he noted.

Also, a higher-ranking delegation from the Government of Southern Sudan arrived in Rumbek on Thursday, headed by Minister of Interior Affairs Paul Mayom Akec and SPLA Chief of Staff Oyai Deng Ajak.

Minister Akec said that the aim of the mission was to sit down with the state administration to discuss why the incident in which seven people were shot had occurred. He added that soldiers who did wrong, including their officers, should be accountable for their mistake.

The Government of Southern Sudan knew of the situation fairly quickly, said Akec, because of appeals to Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. Once in Rumbek, the delegation visited the hospital to see the seven people who were shot on Monday plus the men shot on Tuesday, before heading to Pacong to address soldiers implicated in the incident about what they have done.

Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) Chief of Staff Comrade Oyai Deng Ajak told troops in Pacong that the soldiers who did such things have disgraced the name of SPLA and that they had brought shame to the SPLA soldiers in general.

Secretary Keer indicated that “we have imprisoned a few people among soldiers who are really suspected of shooting, we are going to call over GCM [General court-marshall, a military court] to try them according to military Laws.

In a related development, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reported to Sudan Tribune that six VHF Motorola radios were confiscated from local UNMIS security guards on Tuesday during firearms collections.

UNMIS is supporting the rule of law and will also participate in the development of the Southern Sudan by opening up roads and demining, said David Gressly, the UNMIS regional coordinator for Southern Sudan.

Gressly, speaking after a closed-door meeting with Lakes state Governor Daniel Awet on Wednesday at the secretariat headquarters, said “we are here to support the Government of Southern Sudan and to reconstruct Southern Sudan to bring back rule of law, so we are here to monitor the peace and civilians. Our mandate as UNMIS is to monitor. Roads issues and construction information are relayed to World Food Program,” said Gressly.

Over 187 people are reported to have died from gunshot wounds since January across Lakes state in attacks involving cattle raiders.

(ST)

(Edited by Daniel Van Oudenaren)

7 Comments

  • Mr Famous Big_Logic_Boy
    Mr Famous Big_Logic_Boy

    Conciliatory officials admonish soldiers, plan for trial after Lakes atrocities
    Big Shame on you people,how can you intend to apology while the orders of that crazy disarming was originally from your tongues.I admit that when am making some correction and even pointing out some of the crazy act in this nation of Southern Sudan,yet some of people believe that am sort of jealous,but this is absolutely a big NO,how can i be jealous with a development in Jonglei,Lake,Upper,WA,EA,CE,Wrape and others meanwhile these states are for Southern Sudan and my Sudan in general.

    However one of the main point i want to tell you readers or those who beleives that am against their triblism leaders is that you people are imature in your barbaric beliefs and absolutely you’re triblism.Because your tribalism beliefs makes you to support your own leaders and denying/revealing their problems like dinkas bla bla about Kiir and Koul,Nuer with Riek and some Equatoria with Wani Igga,but imagine right now as i was writting in my room yet on the next door someone is starving,on the other side of the road someone is having luxurious time beer,music and etc e.g dinkas and nuer,to the opposite side of the road kids are roaming on the streets and to the hospital someone is in critical condition just because of diarrhea,and doctors are wondering to rescue but there is no medicine although ORS.So now if we knew that alot of suffering had been brough into this nation of Southern Sudan,how can i realy apprieciate any of those who are in charge of this nation since they have driven us into deep hole of suffering,eventually i would admit that they are age mate to my father,but their age mate has nothing to do with rather than losing lives of our people,since we had lost almost quarter of us.For anyone who blames me in this point of view i would admit with open arms that i do point out the errors but am not jealous or aganist anyone.

    Reply
  • Kun Dieu
    Kun Dieu

    Conciliatory officials admonish soldiers, plan for trial after Lakes atrocities
    Yes I think the cost of problem the soldiers are hungry,our soldiers they need more suport from independ board members of our goverment wings, for example they need market that when the soldier wasn’t in duty and he have some
    extra money in his pocket he have to go and shop to buy what he want to eat,may be the soldier need to eat different kind of food for that day, if we do not suport they will continio looting the civilian property secondly the soldiers need to be fars a way from town of civilians thirldy we need to have more security police officers to protect any kind tripin people that like to looting the communities i think the soldiers should be blame that was the police officers allows the soldiers to do that bad things in the communities.

    Reply
  • joseph Makuei
    joseph Makuei

    Conciliatory officials admonish soldiers, plan for trial after Lakes atrocities
    am not surprised by what is happening in lakes;so long the current governor is acting as if he was ruling northerners in lakes state ;he act as if he won independence from lakes then came to retaliate against the citizens for the pass mistakes they might have committed;its lakes that is not being governed well the relations are so bad that nothing good can come from such a governor ; i learnt last time he was asking for six months to stay as governor because he had an unfinished business; sure this the part of the an unfinish programme; so we will be patient until he either officially resigns or removed by nature.
    thanks
    joe

    Reply
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