S. Sudan Assembly hears report on Malakal fighting

By Isaac Vuni

March 17, 2009 (JUBA) – In a debate over fighting that occurred last month in Malakal, the South Sudan Legislative Assembly was for the first time in its history divided along party lines since its inception in 2005 and it was clear that prominent SPLM debaters and chairpersons had boycotted the deliberation, paving the way for NCP to dominate the floor of the house.

The parties deliberated on the case of controversial Sudan Armed Forces General Gabriel Tanginya and referred the case to legal experts to come up with a possible remedy for the house to adopt later. Tanginya’s return to Malakal last month, ostensibly to visit his family, prompted a costly military stand-off at the airport and other areas of Malakal.

The former militia leader had been living in Khartoum since being implicated in an even heavier case of fighting in Malakal in 2006 that killed 150 people.

The Security and Public Order Committee made a report based on an investigation headed by Deputy Chairman Hon. James Janka Duku (SPLM, Central Equatoria) accompanied by Hon. Benjamin Majok Dau (SPLM, Unity State) and Hon. Riek Bol Nyoac (NCP, Upper Nile), who looked into the causes of insecurity in Malakal including clashes in February between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in the Joint Integrated Units (JIU) and forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

For two days, the house indeed listened to the elaborate insecurity report on the incident in Malakal presented by Governor Gatluak Deng Garang (NCP), chaired by Hon. Speaker Daniel Monydit Deng, chairman of the specialized committee on security.

According to the governor, 57 people were killed and 94 wounded including 26 civilians killed, 21 wounded, 15 SPLA killed, 40 wounded while 16 SAF were killed and 33 wounded.

Though the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have denied that they sent Tanginya to Malakal to instigate anything, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army claimed that he was accompanied by military intelligence personnel. Southern lawmakers in the debate regularly referred to Tanginya’s militiamen as SAF, since in fact they had been formally incorporated into the SAF in accordance with the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Hon. Simon Kun Puoc (SPLM, Upper Nile), Commissioner of South Sudan Relief, Rehabilitation and Humanitarian Commission (SSRRH), cautioned the August House on the danger posed in Malakal at the instigation of the National Congress Party and said they intend to deny southerners’ chance for participating in the coming general election scheduled for July this year.

Echoing a theory voiced by lawmakers at the time of the fighting, he asked why President Bashir sent his general to cause havoc in Malakal while pretending to come for the presidency meeting in Juba, adding that General Gabriel Tanginya and President Bashir are out to destroy even the coming CPA referendum scheduled for January 9, 2011. If so, he noted, Tanginya and Bashir ought to be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Hon. Peter Longole Kuam advised southern parliamentarians to refrain from dividing themselves along party lines simply to appease the interest of NCP-led government in Khartoum, adding that President Bashir’s general and elements plotting to oust Governor Gatluak Garang must be arrested either directly or through the ICC since President Bashir has no ability now to represent Sudan abroad.

Hon. Kout Deng Kout (SPLM, Warrap), suggested that NCP should be given another state to manage instead of Upper Nile since NCP and SPLM are principle signatories to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Hon. Oliver Mori Benjamin, a veteran journalist for SPLM from Juba, said that Tanginya is one of the generals who should be held responsible for killing and destruction in Malakal while management of Upper Nile by NCP should be transferred to another southern state.

Members of NCP led by Hon. Caeser Baya Loyalala, Acting Chairman of Legal Affairs Committee, kept on interrupting various debaters to urge them from linking the Malakal incident with the indictment of President Bashir whom their party has nominated as candidate for president in the general election scheduled for July 2009.

Minister of Internal Affairs Paul Mayom Akech said states’ security lies with each governor to coordinate with his ministry. The minister further disclosed that Tanginya has of late been promoted from the rank of Major General to that of Lieutenant General after the Malakal incident.

Acting Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Bariaba Marial Benjamin, assured the House that the southern region’s president will act on recommendation of the legislators to arrest the controversial general.

During the discussion there were 218 MPs and guest visitor Dr. Jan Nico Scholten while there was no single GOSS minister in attendance. However in the afternoon, the minister of regional cooperation who is also the acting minister of parliamentary affairs and minister of internal affairs, and and the minister of internal affairs, Paul Mayom Akech, participated in the deliberation on the governor’s reports as demanded by members during the morning session.

(ST)