South Sudanese governor warns opposition MPs against war rhetoric
February 10, 2016 (JUBA) – A newly appointed South Sudanese governor to one of the controversial 28 states which President Salva Kiir unilaterally decreed has counter warned members of parliament (MPs) in Juba against war rhetoric, saying the war has not ended anyway in his home state.
Opposition MPs representing Shilluk ethnic group, whose lands have been cut off and annexed to the new Eastern Nile state of the Padang Dinka ethnic group where the president hails from, told news conference on Tuesday in Juba that the annexation of their ancestral lands to Dinka’s ethnic group including the Shilluk town of Malakal is a recipe for war unless revoked.
The leader of minority in parliament, Onyoti Adigo Nyikwac, said President Kiir’s creation of the 28 states which divided the former Upper Nile state into three new ethnic states of Eastern Nile (Dinka), Western Nile (Shilluk) and Latjor (Nuer) annexing lands to the Dinka community is an attempt to create wars between the neighboring communities.
However, governor Balok, a Dinka, said the lawmaker should know that the current war between the government of President Kiir and former Vice President, Riek Machar, is not over yet in greater Upper Nile region that a new war could be hatched.
“The war is going on in the whole Upper Nile now. There is no ceasefire there, even in Western Nile state,” Governor Balok told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday, referring to the new state inhabited by members of Shilluk tribe.
“I am not surprised and I cannot be threatened or deterred by the language of war that they use,” he said.
He warned that the lawmakers will be held responsible for “anything” that will take place in the region, warning he was ready to face them should they not embrace the implementation of the peace agreement.
Governor Balok, a former deputy chief of general staff in the South Sudanese army (SPLA) until his appointment in 2015, said he is happy with the division of the former Upper Nile state which also gave him the former regional capital, Malakal, as his new headquarters, pushing away to the ethnicities including the Shilluk and the Nuer from the area.
He said since the Shilluk and the Nuer do not belong to Malakal anymore and have their own states and new capitals, there was need to dismiss their civil servants from Malakal capital and divide the former state assets among the three new states.
“The three governors sat down with the asset registration committee and agreed to divide assets and human capital,” Balok said.
There are fears that the creation of the new states may become a factor which will ruin the implementation of the peace agreement signed by all parties on the basis of the existing 10 states in the country.
An inclusive boundary commission is supposed to be established in order to determine creation of new states and their boundaries, or else revert to the 10 states should there be a disagreement on the matter.
(ST)