Athou’s death is precedent for Nyandiar’s murder
By Maker M. Marial
February 10, 2011 — After casting my vote on Sunday, January 9, 2011 in a referendum that has been termed as “the final walk to freedom,” in Alexandria, VA, USA, I became thrilled because I had just made my right choice for the independence of southern Sudan. However, after reflecting on the days leading up to the referendum, the year 2010 and beyond, I sadly thought about a 13 year old, Nyandiar Makur Kachuol who will not celebrate with us as Southern Sudan will be declared an independent country in July after nearly 99% voters chose independence. Nyandiar, who was a 5th grade student at Bar-aliep Primary school, was beaten to death by a gang of brothers and relatives on January 1st, 2011. Her death came at a time when all Southern Sudanese were celebrating the New Year with joy and hope for the independence of south Sudan.
According to some statements from witnesses, she was accused of being pregnant, forcefully taken to the forest, tied to a tree, and constantly beaten in turns by six young men in hope to extract confessions from her. But, as innocent as she was, Nyandiar adamantly kept telling her brothers that she wasn’t pregnant. Nevertheless, no one among the ruthless brothers could listen to her, and they kept beating her until she became unconscious and subsequently passed away.
However, moments leading up to her death, Nyandiar didn’t want us to be left wondering much about the circumstances surrounding her death. She left us a message, saying “these men have killed me while I am not pregnant and I want you to know that,” (Gurtong, January 5, 2011). A report from a medical examiner later confirmed her statement.
Nyandiar’s recent murder adds to a number of unresolved murder cases in Lakes State. In September 2010, a 16 year old, Form one student at Hope and Resurrection Secondary School, Martha Athou Lueth was beaten to death by her father when she got pregnant. Subsequently, Nyikada Ngoki, a primary school pupil in Wulu County committed suicide in October after being forced into a marriage she didn’t consent to.
Cases like these are common in Lakes State but they are kept secret within the family or at the community level. The government on the other hand does not take the issue as a serious matter it should address.
Since the death of these three young girls, the government’s position in Lakes State has been deplorable. Until now, there are no measures put in place to prevent repeating such obnoxious crimes.
In the circumstances where customary laws fail to enhance necessary protection, an intervention from the government is needed to rescue the situation. Beating to death of a fellow human being is a crime punishable under any criminal law. Pregnancy has specific arrangements such as fine according to Dinka Customary Law hence there is no justification for physically abusing someone simply because she got pregnant out of wedlock.
As we are moving toward independence, Lakes State Assembly should make laws that are reasonable to address varieties of crimes.
Last year, a controversial pregnancy law was passed. To them [government officials and the members of the Assembly] impregnating a girl would mean that a young man is sentenced to death – what I mean is that ten years prison sentence, plus 3,000 SDG and three cows is a kind of death sentence.
This is law has caused rage in the whole of Lakes State and left people with a lot of confusions some lingering questions. Until now, people are still wondering about how did the traditional chiefs who crafted the pregnancy law forget to make laws that would protect the minors from odious acts such as thrashing to death of young girls when they get pregnant out of wedlock? Similarly, how did the chiefs forget the issue of forced marriage which had led Nyikada to commit suicide?
The truth to the matter is that the traditional chiefs who made this contentious pregnancy law in Lakes State failed to also make laws to protect girls from physical abuse and forced marriages. For this reason, it’s feared that many of the helpless young girls will die since the government does not have laws in place to protect them.
Beating young girls to death is a new crisis in Lakes State, replacing revenge killings which have caused hundreds of lives. Revenge killings came about as a result of application of partial justice when those who were in charged resorted to shielding their own relatives from being punished while others who had committed similar crimes paid heavy price for their deeds. Therefore, many people were taking laws into their own hands because they believed that the government wasn’t doing anything to apply equal justice.
Similarly, people are now killing their own daughters because they believe that they have all legal rights to take the lives of their daughters without being punished for their acts.
Hence, the killing of Athou in October became precedent for the recent death of Nyandiar while hundreds of girls have already been abused or threatened to be killed when they became pregnant — many more will die in days and months to come if the government does not act now.
Thus, the Lakes State government bears the blame for Nyandiar’s death because it had failed to come up with laws to protect the young girls from physical abuse soon after Athou was killed. Her life would have been saved if the government was quick to ban beating and educate the public about the consequences of use of excessive physical abuse against young girls.
Without the intervention from the government, this new trend of beating young girls to death will continue unless the state government takes some serious steps to punish all forms of physical violence against young girls and women in general.
Maker Mabor Marial lives in the United States. He can be reached at [email protected]