Security Council praises South Sudan leadership for defusing tensions in Jonglei state
April 9, 2012 (JUBA) – The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York has commended the role played by the South Sudan’s top leadership in defusing the inter-communal tensions in the troubled Jonglei state, reports the top UN official in the country.
Hilde Johnson, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General informed the Vice President, Riek Machar, during a joint meeting this week that the UN body had appreciated the personal intervention by the top leadership which disengaged rival communities in Jonglei state and persuaded them to disarm peacefully.
Johnson had recently presented a report to the UNSC in New York on the situation in South Sudan.
The United Nations and the international community had previously expressed deep concern over the deadly retaliatory raids among the Lou-Nuer, Dinka Bor and Murle communities which have left thousands of people dead, hundreds abducted and over 120,000 displaced.
A large retaliatory attack was organized by over 6,000 armed youth from Lou-Nuer in early January this year with a declared intention to capture all Murle towns and villages, recover abducted women and children and occupy the Murle land for months in order to disarm the community by force.
The Lou-Nuer criticized the government for allegedly failing to disarm the Murle community in the past, arguing that their community was disarmed three times and left vulnerable to the attackers. As a result they said they were forced to rearm and took the law into their own hands.
The personal intervention of the Vice President, Machar, where he visited the captured Lilkwangole town of Murle by Lou-Nuer and persuaded the youth to withdraw to Lou-Nuer territory, reportedly defused what would have been a protracted large scale disaster in the area.
The youth of Lou-Nuer withdrew from Lilkwangole town but however continued to raid tens of thousands of cattle from the surrounding Murle villages including the Murle county headquarters, Pibor town. The reluctant withdrawal resulted to sporadic deadly confrontations as they made what was seen to be a deliberate wide U-turn back to their land.
CIVILIAN DISARMAMENT CAMPAIGN IN JONGLEI
The leadership had also undertaken a vigorous disarmament campaign in the whole of Jonglei state in order to persuade the civil populations to take out their guns.
According to the Vice President’s Press Secretary, James Gatdet Dak, the UN Special Representative also informed Machar about the commendable effort the leadership had exerted by touring all the counties of Jonglei state and persuading the civilians to surrender their weapons to the organized forces.
Machar toured the state of Jonglei following the launching of the disarmament exercise in mid-March by the President of the Republic, Salva Kiir Mayardit, in the state’s capital, Bor.
The ‘Operations Restore Peace in Jonglei state’ was put under the overall command of Lt. General Kuol Deim Kuol, based in Bor town, and deputized by Major General Peter Gatdet Yak, who daily commands the operations of the 15,000-strong force in the field.
The Vice President’s interaction with all the six tribes in Jonglei state during which he visited 16 locations reportedly reduced fears of vulnerability. These included the communities of Nuer, Dinka, Murle, Anyuak, Kachipo and Jieh.
The communities were previously reluctant to disarm, demanding protection first and assurance that the other neighboring communities would be equally disarmed simultaneously.
So far over 9,000 rifles out of the targeted 20,000 guns have been collected from various locations. However some armed youth are reported to have dodged the disarmament and crossed to Ethiopia and other hideouts in South Sudan.
Though Johnson expressed concerns about some reported incidences during the disarmament exercise, she generally registered her appreciation in the way the exercise has been conducted on the ground.
She assured of her mission’s continued collaboration and coordination with the South Sudan’s government, adding that the mission had already deployed dozens of monitors in the areas of disarmament.
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