Gawaar-Nuer community in Uganda suspends chairman over pro-government statement
July 18, 2015 (KAMPALA) – Gawaar-Nuer community in Uganda has dismissed claims made by their chairman that the community should collaborate with the government to bring peace and unity between president Salva Kiir’s government and the armed opposition faction led by former vice president, Riek Machar.
In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune, which was published on Wednesday, the Gawaar-Nuer community chairman, Ter Mayang Gatwech, said his community was working to promote peace and stop hatred generated against president Kiir’s government for massacring in December 2013thousands of members of the Nuer ethnic group in the capital, Juba.
Gatwech made the statement after a meeting he claimed his leadership held in Kampala with the government’s chief intelligence for external affairs, Thomas Duoth Guet, who also hails from the Gawaar-Nuer community in Jonglei state.
However, the statement angered the Gawaar-Nuer community in Uganda and the rest of their leadership who distanced themselves from the statement and called for immediate suspension of their chairman.
In an emergency meeting held on Friday at Makerere Institute of Professionals premise, the community leadership passed a resolution which temporary suspended their chairman, Gatwech, and formed an investigation committee to investigate him over what they said was his “unilateral” decision and public statement.
A legal advisor to the Gawaar-Nuer community board, James Tayien Koang, told Sudan Tribune that the unilateral statement by Gatwech was his personal decision and should not have used the name of the community for his “own interest.”
“In our constitutional mandate, a chairman is tasked to consult his cabinet and the entire community board before announcing anything to public,” Koang said, adding that it was the right decision to suspend and investigate him for the misconduct.
“Article 16 suspension standing orders clause 14.2.1 it reads, “in matters of urgency the chairperson may accept a motion for suspension of any of the standing order (s) and clause 14.2.2 the movers of the motion shall clearly state the nature and urgency of the business, the order (s) affected; and the length of the time such suspension may all last.”
The deputy chairperson of the community, Wuor Gatjang Puol, has been appointed as an interim chairman, pending investigation of Gatwech.
A five-member committee has been named to investigate him for the pro-government statement and to report back on the findings within four weeks.
Stephen Wat Bipal who is an elder in the Gawaar-Nuer community in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, told Sudan Tribune in a separate interview that the statement by the chairperson of the community was wrong, adding it hurt the community.
“We cannot and will not cover the cause of killing of innocent Nuer civilians in Juba and other parts of the country. I assure the South Sudanese and, in particular the Nuer community worldwide not to support any single step taken by Juba regime. I dismissed this propaganda as baseless and incorrect manner to initiate peace with some elements in Juba,” elder Bipal said.
The leadership of the Gawaar community said they would not accept any other peace initiative with the government except through the peace talks led on their behalf by the armed opposition group under the leadership of Riek Machar.
They also said they will not accept a peace agreement that will not address the root causes of the war and bring to book the perpetrators of the massacres of thousands of members of the ethnic Nuer community in Juba.
The suspended chairperson, Gatwech, has admitted, when contacted by Sudan Tribune on Sunday that he was temporarily suspended by the Gawaar community over the statement he made, saying he accepted to step aside until the investigation was done.
(ST)