Ciec Youth in Lakes state denounce unfair behavior of SPLA

We the Ciec youth Association [CYA] of Yirol East County of Lakes State are committed to the stability of our regional autonomous government of Southern Sudan and indeed appreciate the real peace brought by the CPA and its fruits be tasted by all the communities who suffered during our liberation struggle. We regret to note that there is hindering of development due to all these barbaric act and atrocities committed against the people and are overwhelming authority in Lakes State .

We have been patient and waiting for justice to prevail and prove who is wrong on these issues and find out what are the causes of conflict between youth of Ciec community and youth of Apaak community involved in killing of each other and due to delay of justice while there is increasing violence on the ground should not be tolerated and we are appealing to the government of Southern Sudan [GOSS] lead by His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit to intervene into this ongoing conflict for urgent solutions and to resolve their problems and peace return to the community.

The SPLA soldiers lead by Col. Mou known as Mou Muor Manyaar which was deployed in the area for recruitment of cattle raids from both side and peaceful disarmament to take place are not doing a fair job rather than favoring one side and unfortunately the soldiers have been allegedly raped breast feeding woman. However, the cattle rustling has been going on and both Government of Lakes State and GOSS were doing nothing than just ignoring it, and to prove this point, here are cases of cattle attacked by Apaak youth and killed people since the beginning of this year 2009 and no reaction from the government:

The attacked of Tongot cattle camp at 3:00Am in the morning on 15 April, 2009 and in this attacked nearly 1,500 herd of cattle have been confiscated and number of civilian were killed including women and children, 14 children were drawn inside water and after the attack, we have discovered that the government was behind the attacked and evidence of this was the body guard of the current commissioner of Yirol West County Mr. Agok Manyiel Dhieu Alam, his body guard was shot dead carrying a machine gun [PKM] during the attacked and the government did not response to it.

The attacked of Aliet cattle camp on June 24th, 2009 and more than 270 herd of cattle was stolen and killed people and no reaction from the government again and we still hold our contempt with hope from the government that they should intervene but still yet to date nothing had happened at all.

The attacked of Nyigomkot cattle camp on 22nd July, 2009, more than 180 cattle’s have been raided again and yet the authority in Lakes State and GOSS did not response to the incident and we in fact call for the return of cattle and Ciec youth were promised that their cattle be returned after two weeks and nothing yield to this development.

When the youth of Ciec noted that there is no law that rescue them or reaction from the government, the 20 youth holds law into their hands due to their frustration and decided to raid Gadiang Cattle camp in Yirol West on 29th Sept, where they took away nearly 1,300 cattle and 900 of these cattle belong to H.E Mr. David Deng Athorbei, the current GOSS Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Deng complained in one of the GOSS security meeting that his cows has been confiscated all and nothing left in his hand and term himself as “ cowsless” and in this incident, the government react seriously were it seem SPLA soldiers have been brief and send them to Yirol East County where they torture traditional Chiefs, raping woman and went on to collect an estimate of 2,600 cattle at one side of Ciec youth and brought them to Yirol West Town including cows of those who were not involved in the cattle’s raiding and good number of cows have been slaughtered by the Soldiers to feed themselves and the Governor of Lakes State, H.E Daniel Awet Akot move to Yirol to stay there reaching almost three weeks, a move surprising people what make the governor to stay there for long?

The question is what happens today why the governments react and failed to do so when Apaak youth attacked the above mentioned cattle camps in Yirol East County ?

Is this because the Cows of the Minister Deng Athorbei have been confiscated?
If this is true, what about those who are not Ministers and their cows have been raided and the government was not answerable to them, how are they going to survive?

The Ciec community of Yirol East have participated strongly in the movement for 22yrs of struggle and has been denied representation now both at GOSS Cabinet and State level since the inception of the government of Southern Sudan in 2005 when the CPA was signed in Nairobi, Kenya, however, we have noted that we have been marginalized and people used their power to intimidate us and we are really shocked by such behavior and we condemned both GOSS and the government of Lakes State who allow soldiers to torture innocents people and those involved be brought to justice for their atrocities they committed.

We would like to give a brief background of the current situation at home town of Yirol East County, in fact community at home have been affected economically, socially and culturally at the same time as their main rural economy has got collapsed due to unrest tribal conflict between Ciec youth of Yirol East County and Apaak youth of Yirol West County. the tribal conflict is intensified and it seem being politically motivated and this current disaster need the GOSS to pay attention into this and form the committee to investigate the action taken by the soldiers lead by Col. Mou Muor Anyaar and the Governor H.E Awet Akot who are siding with Apaak youth and carryout unjustified action against Ciec community, however, the chiefs of Ciec has been tortured and brought under arrest in Yirol Town as this is a serious humiliation and violation of County sovereignty which has its own commissioner and it local administration which handle their cases.

The leadership of Lakes State has no authority to protect people and we real take note of this as the Governor of Lakes State has failed in his leadership to contain the insecurity and to address the root cause of the conflict.

As a matter of concerns, the CYA came up in their meeting on Saturday 17th Oct, 2009 with recommendations and solutions as follows:

– We Ciec youth Association or CYA call upon His Excellency the president of the government of Southern Sudan [GOSS] to intervene and form the committee to investigate the atrocities committed against civilian.

– We call upon the Ministry of Internal Affairs to intervene and to take up the issue from the army and deploy the police to handle the issue as they are the one entrusted with duties to act between civilian and government.

– We the CYA urge the Government of Lakes State to take fair action and not taking side like what they are doing in Yirol East where they brought cattle from one side and gathered in Yirol town rather than Nyang, the HQS of Yirol East County as this action is a violation of County administrative sovereignty.

– Call upon Government of Lakes State to return the cattle recruited and needs to be gathered in their respective administrative units and exchange of cattle will be carrying out accordingly between two counties without favoring one side.

– We the youth calling for peace, reconciliation and justice mechanism and to reach peaceful coexistence among the youth of both side and the community of Greater Yirol at large.

– Call upon the Peace commission of Southern Sudan to play a role of peace building initiative to bring people together on how to resolve the ongoing long conflict in Greater Yirol.

– Calling the establishment of special court of legal expert comprises of traditional chiefs representative from both side to resolve the conflict by returning all the cattle raiding to each other and the entire victim will be compensated and community return to peaceful coexistence.

Failure to conform with the above recommendations, the CYA will mobilize its community and resort back to decide and be annex to either be part of Unity State, or Central Equartoria or Jonglei State where we will be recognized socially and politically because the Government of Lakes Sate have been targeted Ciec community since it formation and we take serious notes of this issue otherwise, we want the GOSS to show us where they want us to go. We have realized that the government is the one fighting with us.

Sign By:

John Machiec Manyiel
Chairman of CYA

On behave of Ciec Youth Association [CYA]

Tel: 0912730026

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]