Nuer youth demand immediate release of detained army officer
October 18, 2012 (JUBA) – The leadership of the Nuer Youth Executive Council (NYEC) has demanded the “immediate” release of Maj. Gen. Simon Gatwec Duel, a senior South Sudan army (SPLA) officer arrested over alleged links to rebels fighting the government.
In a press release, issued on Thursday, NYEC said it was “deeply troubled” by the events that led to the 11 October arrest of the officer, which reportedly occurred from his work place at the army headquarters in Bilpham – just outside the capital, Juba.
Maj. Gen. Duel’s arrest, sources say, resulted from his alleged links with rebels loyal to renegade David Yau Yau, who currently leads a rebellion in South Sudan’s Jonglei State.
“We thought that his arrest was something related to administrative issues until we read the press release of Jieng Community Association in Juba which categorically stated that Maj. Gen. Simon Gatwec was incarcerated due to his support to Nuer Prophet Dak Kueth and Murle rebel commander, David Yau Yau,” partly reads the Nuer youth statement.
The Jieng Community Association, also extended by Sudan Tribune, claims Maj. Duel’s arrest followed military intelligence reports, which reportedly linked him and other politicians to an alleged coup attempt against the leadership of President Salva Kiir.
The youth, in their press release, dismissed these allegations as baseless; saying South Sudan has since last year, been awash with rumors of coups plots.
Meanwhile, the NYEC claim the arrest of Maj. Gen Duel is part of an alleged ploy to sideline Nuer army officers from the SPLA, specifically targeting its high-ranking officers.
“We have discovered that President Kiir wanted to implement a policy of purging the Nuer officers out of the SPLA army. This policy was delayed when Paulino Matip was alive because he was against it,” further reads the Nuer statement.
Matip died in August having been the Deputy Commander in Chief of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) since 2006.
The spokesperson of the SPLA was unavailable for a comment on the allegations when contacted by Sudan Tribune on Thursday.
However, South Sudan’s Kiir, on Wednesday, told army officers, that the international community would not recognize any government formed after a military coup.
South Sudan became the world’s youngest nation when it gained independent in July last year.
(ST)
YihHon Alewei
Sudan accepts unconditionally Darfur hybrid force – UN
It is too late for the peacekeeping forces to enter Darfur
By YihHon Alewei
What UN and the rogue government of arabs based in northern Sudan have reached yesterday is not fair enough, I mean it has nothing to help. That move didn’t satisfied me and is to be termed as a late move “with nothing in it”. It took UN nearly five years to reach that deal with that brutal government of the northern Sudan. Allowing 19,000 African and UN forces is to late for Darfurians perdicament. We already lost 200,000 lives and 2.5 people displaced, what kind of security UN and African forces are going to provide.
If UN need to be a leading security body, then it needs to change some of it charters which don’t use force to rescue people who are in a deteriorated conditions. Refering to the case of Rwanda, UN contingents failed to provide protection to the civilians on the ground in Rwanda in 1994 genocide. My Blaming goes direct to African countries who had let Africa continent down. Africa is the second largest continent of the world,and is always seeking help from even smaller continent like US and UK.
Omar Hassan,the grandson of the Nigerian migrant who uesed to work on Gezira cotton farm during that time is now predending as arabs decend. Omar should have to respect the land he was brought up in. Instead of praising the Sudanese people, then he uses to kill them. There is justice everywhere, if Omar miss justice here on earth, than he will not miss it in heaven where sinful people use to go to “hell”. It is a “damn show” for people like Omar to presided the country, while they never get what they were suppose to get during their childhood. Using these resouces of “Native African” will get to it’s point one day and it’s punishment will be obvious for the ringleaders.
People like foreign affairs minister, Lam Akol used to deny the fact that people of Darfur are suffering. Being the foreign affairs minister in the throat of that tyrany man will not secure your seats in the future when our beloved land will get it full independent. In the developed world departments like foreign affairs are independent departments with descisons made by the foreign affairs ministers. But in countries like Sudan, foreign affairs minister is not even known by the public. President is everything, he is the president, and ministers at the same time.
We are far behind the world, other world nations are ahead of us by millions miles. We need to give democracy a go instead of practicing autocracy and millitary rules. Darfur case has made Sudan as a country suspected of torrorism, Sudan look like it has no people with good judgement. Calling Sudan arabs world is not helping, it will make Sudan as a notorious country suspect of torrorists.
And it is indeed, what is going on in Darfur at the moment is a torrorist act and it investigation will take years to be included.
Whoever will be found guilty will face that music in the Hague like Charles Taylor. Darfur crisis is already a war crime on the world stage, whoever stablished the killing will still face justice lik the ten criminals of Rwanda who organised the 1994 genocide. These problems of Sudan will be like the fever sweeter which taste sweet first and become bitter at the end. The problems you are creating now are for your generations to come, if you are a good leader now, then your offsprings will be in harmony with the coming leaders of that war torn country.
To conclude my article, I am not happy with the way the Darfur case has been handled by African countries and the world body UN. As a recommnedation, UN have to change some of it charters which doesn’t use force against any groups torrorising the lives of civilians.
The writer of the article is a South Suandese living on the Gold Coast, Australia. He can be reached by [email protected]