South Sudan MP family fight in-laws injuring four
January 8, 2012 (RUMBEK) – A gunfight between the family of a South Sudanese MP and another family in Rumbek on Sunday wounded four people, which was halted when Lakes State’s military police intervened.
Commissioner Magol sent the Lakes State military police to separate the two sides from fighting. One of the men involved in the shooting was taken to Rumbek’s main prison.
All the members of Daniel Deng Monydit family suspected of involvement in the fighting have been arrested, Sudan Tribune understands.
Lakes state local radio was ordered not to air any information regarding the fighting, by the Lakes state information minister Marik Nanga Marik. The minister said the charges were not clear but did not give any further details saying he was not permitted to speak to the media.
On Sunday night the governor of Lakes State, Chol Tong Mayay, and the deputy speaker of the National Assembly in Juba, Daniel Awet Akot, and the Lakes state commissioner of police visited the family of Bol Tokmac but did not give a statement afterwards.
On Friday the family house Bol Tokmac, was attacked by the sons of Daniel Deng Monydit MP, who is married to Tokmac’s daughter.
His son, Manyot Deng Monydit, who is a second lieutenant in the SPLA’s Bilpam HQ in Juba, has been accused of instigating the attack.
A warrant for the arrest of Manyot Deng Monydit was released after the incident on Friday and passed to the military police but it was not acted upon until the incident on Sunday.
The police say they fired five bullets into the air at Rumbek hospital on Sunday to break up further fighting between the two families, which injured two people on each side of the dispute.
Manyot Deng Monydit, has denied that he shot anyone saying he was carrying a stick but admitted to firing two shots from his pistol into the air. He said that his family were acting in self-defense as they were being attacked with sticks by Bol Tokmac’s family.
Manyot was shot in the fighting. He told Sudan Tribune that after he was shot did not know who took his gun. He said he had come to Rumbek to act as a bodyguard and driver for his father.
He said he did not know who had shot the two men from the other family.
Manyot said: “I have no clear picture who took [my] gun and I only knew that police guards were carrying arm[s]”.
Pietok Bol Tokmac, told the press shortly after gunfight that he was seeking help from the Lakes State government to arrest Manyot Deng Monydit, who he alleges attacked his home, firing four bullets on Friday, triggering Sunday’s fighting.
He said that his sister is having problems with her marriage to and Daniel Deng Monydit MP but but said he did not know what they were. Pietok Bol Tokmac says Manyot Deng Monydit attacked him with a stick on Friday without provocation.
After his neighbours intervened, Pietok says Manyot fired four bullets at him. He said that Daniel Deng Monydit MP had ordered his son to attack him.
The MP and his family had taken the law into their own hands, Pietok told Sudan Tribune.
“I have no gun and I ask the authority to help me by imposing law only. There is no law in South Sudan. There is no law in Lakes state. I ask [the] government to do their best otherwise […] everyone will take [the] law in[to] his own hand[s]”, said Pietok.
Pietok said he was “begging” the South Sudanese authorities to “rescue us because we are civilian[s] we don’t have gun[s]. He said that Deng Monydit’s thirty strong family were all armed, even those under 14 years of age.
Sudan Tribune was not able to reach MP Deng for comment on the incident and the allegations against him.
(ST)