South Sudan police, army refute Jonglei rebel recruitment

August 11, 2012 (JUBA) – The commissioner of police in South Sudan’s Jonglei state has dismissed claims that local youth are being recurred into a rebel group in Pibor County led by David Yau Yau.

Yau Yau, has staged a low intensity rebellion since he lost his bid to become a representative for Pibor in the April 2010 general elections.

Pibor county commissioner Joshua Konyi told Sudan Tribune last week that mobilisation is allegedly being carried out in Katar area of Pibor, home to members of Yau Yau’s Murle tribe.

Murle tribal leaders repeated the claim in a meeting with Vice President Riek Machar in Juba last week, according to United Nations radio – Miraya FM.

But Biar Mading, Jonglei State’s commissioner of police dismissed the claim in an interview with the UN radio on Friday.

“There is no proof that the recruitment is happening,” Mading said.

Following clashes between the Murle and the Luo Nuer and Dinak last year, which intensified dramatically over Christmas and New Year, President Salva Kiir ordered a state-wide disarmament campaign deploying over 15,000 soldiers and police to the area.

The commander of disarmament process Maj Gen. Kuol Diem has also refuted the claims that recruitment is taking place.

Yau Yau was a little known figure before his defeat for seat in the Jonglei State Legislative assembly seat in 2010. He rejoin the government in Juba last year as part of a Presidential amnesty offered by Kiir to all South Sudanese rebel groups.

However, he absconded and reappeared in Khartoum. Sudan denies backing South Sudan’s rebel groups and accuses Juba of backing their former colleagues in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

(ST)