The Equatoria Land Grabs:

By Deng Ajak Jongkuch*

December 26, 2008 — The Southern Sudanese need to be aware and critical about the so -call “Equatoria Land Grabbed” Campaign. This issue had been in the media since the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. Many argued that this issue is a threat to a national security including economics development and peaceful co-existence of Southern Sudanese. Some went far by suggesting that the issue may derail the Southern referendum coming up in 2011. The worse of all, some suggested that the war is on the horizon in Southern Sudan if nothing is done. On the other hand, there are those who are critical about these allegations, suggesting that the land grabs in the Greater Equateria region is not an issue and it is not even exist. I spent sometimes critically analyzing this issue and I concluded that there are no land occupations in the Greater Equateria region. The issue of land grabs is a coded word to destabilize the government of Southern Sudan.

The land occupation issues in the Greater Equateria region is a political tools fabricated and engineered by invisible hands that have interest to destabilize the Government of Southern Sudan. Those who carefully study the politics of this issue may realize that this is not the first time the invisible hands used such tactics. The former President of Sudan, Jafar Numeiri introduced the system of decentralization in Southern Sudan to divide and role, but the system was tilted and used as a tool to spread hatred and destabilized the regional government. The same group took the issue of Jonglei Canal and diverted it to destabilize the regional government of Abel Alier. History will judge if the issue of land grab in three States of Equateria if it is another conspiracy to destabilize the current Government of Southern Sudan. I hope the Government of Southern Sudan is paying much attention to such conspiracy and I hope the patriots of the Greater Equatoria will stand up for the truth.

Those who read articles, opinions, and commends on various news media may questioned the creditability of Land grab advocates. For example, there are many articles written by individuals who would not spell their names correctly. One of the articles that caught my attention was written by a young lady who pretended to be from Northern Bar El Ghazel State. This poor individual used two different names on the same article. Her first opening name was “week” and then later signed by name “wek.” The name Wek is from Malual Dinka, but I never heard name “Week.” Call it a typo error, but I am nervously suspicious of this individual. There are reasons to believe that this “Week or Wek” is the same individual who pretended to be a Nuer advocate against Equateria land grab. You may ask who really these individuals claiming to be advocates against land occupation in the Greater Equateria?

I lately finished reading a book about the “KGB” operations in the former Soviet Union and around the word. KGB is a former Soviet Union intelligence service and similar to the United State CIA. Although the entire book was interesting, one thing that relates to Equateria land grabs caught my attention. The Russian Intelligent Service (KGB) created a department known as “Department of Disinformation.” You may laugh, but this is true. The KGB department of disinformation is responsible to spread false information within former U.S.S.R and around the world. The purpose was to manufacture lies by distorting the truth to justified crimes committed by the KGB against their own citizens and against foreign governments and their citizens. Through the Department of Illegal and the Department of Disinformation, the KGB almost overthrew the government of Mexico by inciting Mexican citizens against their own government. Western intelligent such as CIA, developed counterintelligence information to challenge the KGB, by telling the truth and hunted down the KGB secret operatives. After reading this book, I questioned myself if Sudan Intelligent services adopted the KGB strategies by spreading false information such as land grabs to divide our people and destabilize the Government of Southern Sudan. If you wish, you can accuse me for diverting the attending, but question yourself if the issue of Equatoria land grabs is a real and legitimate issue.

The poor Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) are the center for the Equatoria land grabs conspiracy. You probably read that Bor IDPs are occupying Madiland in Nimuli, Yei, and Juba. That they are killing people in massive numbers, that they are raping Madi women, that they are displacing natives from their homes, that they are selling ancestral land to foreigners, that they terrorizing Equatorians, that they refused to go to their homes, and that they are forcing local girls into house slavery. Although these terrible crimes were committed by Sudan Army during the occupation of Southern Sudan, the people of Greater Equatoria never stand up and questioned the enemy. Anybody who has a brain knows that these allegations are not true. If you think I am an ignorant, please tell me if there are IDPs in Yei, Nimulei, and Juba. What I know is that there never been IDPs in these controversial towns. During Bor Massacred on August 28, 1991 and displacement, Yei and Juba were under enemy controlled. If you are informed, IDPs were stationed in Laboni, New Cush, and Munduri. Thousand of these IDPs from Laboni, New Cush, and other areas moved to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya and those who were in Munduri were forced to go home in 2006 by the same man who displaced them in the first place. Nimulei at the time was not safe for IDPs because of enemy determine to take it over, therefore; no IDPs were there. How these IDPS came to occupy Nimulei, Yei, and Juba after 2005 peace is a misrepresentation of the truth. Personally, I refused to accept the notation that IDPs are killing Equatorians, displacing them, and rapping their women because there are no IDPs in such places. I do not see to how IDPs become so powerful that they overcome the entire region of Equatoria and take their lands. Remember these people are internal displaced people and if they have such power, how they got displaced in first place? Furthermore, my own eyes told me something most of these land grab advocates could not believe. I have been to Southern Sudan three times since 2005. On my second trip, I passed through Kapota, Torit, and Juba to my homeland. On this trip I never encountered IDPs camps. On my third trip, I flow from Nairobi to Juba and on my returned; I took a bus from Juba passing through various villages to Nimulei to Uganda. Again I never saw IDPs camps in those areas. I never been to Yei, but we all know that there never been IDPs camp in Yei. At the Southern Sudan towns I passed through, I saw many Southern Sudanese citizens from different tribes and I would not tell who is an internal displaced person grabbing land from the Equatoria.

The Bari Community in Khartoum put out a barbaric statement that based on allegation and belittle a community they claimed to represent. These people who claimed to be community elders have no creditability to threatening the CPA and relocation of Government of Southern Sudan. According to the Sudan Tribune, “The Bari claimed that the Government of Southern Sudan had used legal instruments to grab 70% of the entire land mass of Central Equatoria State and participated in the systematic armed robbery of Bari community property such as livestock.” This is another example of disinformation campaign to create confusion; probably the invisible hands are on my list of suspect on this statement. The Bari Community in Khartoum is quick to see what GOSS has done in three years in Juba, but they kept quiet for two decades when Khartoum regime was in control of Juba and the entire region of Equatoria. The relocation of GOSS to “any other city in the south” is a foolish statement, because nobody owned GOSS and nobody will accept the government accused of such crimes to settle any where else? There is no better way to say this than what Mr. John L Deng said, “it is really ironical that those who claimed the “grabbing” of their land are living in Khartoum with our common enemy and yet they failed to realize that the land they live in Khartoum isn’t their land if the complaint of land grabbing is the issue in question.”

I am too young to understand what make the Greater Equateria region so special that the entire Dinka want to occupy it. Mr. Jocab K. Lupai a man with a good writing and seems to inherited a shallow thinking tried to defined what make Equatoria unique. He correctly asked, “What is so sweet about Equatoria? His immature answer, “Well, Equatoria may be a land of civilization and high moral values that is why it is so attractive.” I have no way to debate to how Mr. Lupai defined “civilization” or the word “Moral,” since these words are open to a wider debate beyond Mr. Lupai little brain concentrated in small portion of the world within Southern Sudan. If civilization and moral represents something “sweet,” I am afraid that sweet thing is not in the Greater Equatoria; it is in Southern Sudan as a whole. As citizens of this great land, we are all entitled to have a share of that sweet thing. The oil in the Greater Upper Nile is a perfect example of that sweetness and we are blessed that it is not in the Greater Equateria yet we still share it with our enemy, because it is for all the Sudanese.

In conclusion, I am not here to beg for the Unity of Southern Sudanese tribes against the common enemy, nor am I asking for peace or co-existence, or in defense of GOSS. I am here to say that there are no more Internal Displaced Persons in the Greater Equatoria and their names should not be use as a scapegoat for hidden agenda. I am here to say that the issue of land grabs is a false coded word to destabilize the GOSS. If a man wants to attack a lion, he takes his spears and aim well to the chosen target. If GOSS is the target, I advise my brothers to weigh the consequence because others tried before but it did not work. If the target is the Dinka, I have no word to say. If I have to give a word of wisdom, please never rock or tilt this government, it may cause severe consequences on all of us and generations to come if that what you wants then it is up to you to decide?

Deng Ajak Jongkuch is a MPH Student at Touro University and hold a B.S. in Health Services Administration from San Jose State University can be reach by [email protected]