Finally; Salva Kiir’s regime has succeeded over my family! A Tribute To A Man Who Shed his blood for Me & His Country By: Boutros Biel 27 July 2014 Today 27 July 2014, marks three months when my younger brother paid the ultimate price with his life. May your soul rest with the Lord whose love for freedom of humanity offered himself on the cross at Calvary. “I would rather die in the bush than be slaughtered like those of Gai”. Yes, true, you said it and it has come, I heard you then and you died in the bush brother. First, I would like to sincerely apologise to some relatives, family friends, his friends, age mates and colleagues who might not have heard the news. I remained silent since I received the news on 20 June 2014 without telling, due to the fact that I was trying to inform the immediate family members and also to continue trying means of reaching our dad but I have failed to get in touch with dad to date as there is no network in Fangak Island and my efforts to connect through Thuraya phones didn’t work either. I decided to pay him tribute publicly on his 90 days in the soil. I request those who will read this message to be strong and who might meet my elder brother Kong Biel to courageously inform him accordingly so that in turn he informs dad and other family members at home. There is no cause for more tears, like Isaiah Abraham and several more South Sudanese people; they died so that we might live a decent, just and free life in a country where ethnic names and characters are not constant guillotine over our necks. We will miss them deeply but woe unto us if we fail to stand up still for what they stood and died for; that is; justice, true peace, equality and equity for all where thereafter a democratic government becomes a byproduct of their blood. I have to inform you that the younger brother I am talking about is Nywon Biel Kwel. He paid the ultimate price with his life on 27 April 2014 at a battle for Ayod. Today he has three months on the ground; he was killed by a tank driven by friends of Salva Kiir and where his body has been thrown, only God knows and the friends of Salva Kiir whom I believe burned his body or gave it to the beasts of the jungles. Nywon is a third born of our parents and is my immediate follower. Born in January 1985, he died at the age of 29. His Christian name is Isaac and he was baptized in 2003 at Catholic Church, Thonyor of Leer Parish, Unity State as we returned to Uganda school in Uganda from vacation. “Why are you crying Nywon?” I asked him. “I was told you have been killed together with those Gai and others and I could not believe to hear your voice again?” Those were his own words as I spoke to him on 19 December 2013 from the Juba based compound of the United Nations Mission In South Sudan(UNMISS). He was speaking from the bushes of Jonglei state near Bor just three days later after he was lucky to dash into the bushes of South Sudan. I could not believe too that he was alive as his home near New Site, was the scene of the battle where many were rounded up and disappeared to this. Tears role on my face but as I glanced behind me, I saw some young men of his age and I realized that it was unmanly for me to appear soft hearted when I have been comforting the aggrieved families since I entered the UNMISS after 15 December 2014. “I left Juba Town in the earlier morning of 16 December 2013 together with Gar-Machar(Dr. Riek Machar). Somebody told me that you were killed at the dawn of the same day as Salva Kiir’s groups were advancing to kill us too” .He told me as I pushed him up as to how he left Juba. “I am not dead brother but our cousins Peter Gai, Gatluok Tot and some of our elders like Martin Kueth, Dak Riek and other relatives I would tell you later are still missing, only God knows, if they are still alive” I responded to him. “Those of Gai are not alive, do not be deceived but please leave Juba and do not come to where we are in the bush, go back to USA or to Kenya, I am now fully in military spirit to fight back against this government which has killed our family members. I am with those of Juma Koang and we will fight on to the end of our lives or till we defeat Salva Kiir”. Nywon, tearfully told me. “Thank you, I will leave Juba and if you manage to get on phone our elder brother Kong, I was told by uncle Gabriel Biliu that he spoke to him at SPLA barrack at Kokpiot and he cried over the phone for he also thought I was dead, tell him, I am alive”. I responded to him. As I tried to continue speaking to him that he could leave Bor for Upper Nile, the bad network on and off cut our communication. I could only hear him shouting while saying something like, “don’t worry, don’t worry, I am mature enough to fight on” He talked other things and I remained in silent. The communication got cut and I knew the news about what happened in Juba has angered him and he was quite embittered. His last voice and words echoed every guilt into my mind, little did I know I would never ever hear him again. I continued to ask questions as to why I let him go to roam in the bush without my presence as his elder brother? Was it fear of being caught while going out of Juba or was it my legal or Catholic training that kept me aloof? I could not figure out but I finally recalled later my original thoughts when I heard the first shots, just two hours after my arrival in Juba from New York; I told the boys at my house to remain calm as the shooting would not have anything to do with civilians and even if security agents could come home to arrest me because of my human rights work since they might connect everything, no one should fight back and I would go with them! I lost communication with Nywon from that time. As the saying goes, ‘blood is thicker than water’, between 28 April 2014 to the 5 May 2014, I felt sad anytime, it was unusual and I called one of my colleagues at the University of Pretoria and told him that I started to be unusual in my feelings and not sure if my brothers are safe at frontlines especially younger brother. I called a relative and asked her if she has heard anything about them. “Nothing” She said. I called another relative at Canal in Pigi County if he heard anything of them, he said our elder brother Kong Biel left for village since March 2014. I could not be sure but that is the story that his colleagues keep on telling me since that time to date, he was also fighting at Malakal front. Towards the end of May 2014, a relative who fought along with Nywon called me from Waat and pricked me; “Nywon has gone missing in a fight we had 10 days ago with the enemy at Ayod Road”. What? I asked. “I am going to check for him on the other side where are troops are, I am sure he is there”. He added. I tried to compose myself. “Ok, keep me informed of his whereabouts”. I told him. It was clear, what has dawned on me was another period of mental stress as was the time after Juba killings in December when the relatives who went missing kept coming to my memory and how I survived till I reached the UNMISS base. How that was later followed by search of my person in Juba by Kiir’s agents the very day I left Juba as Mr. Jacob Atem narrated to me later on how he was forced to reveal my whereabouts, my office or home direction. The memory of how my Juba home was destroyed and looted on 20 January 2014 by the SPLA soldiers or whatever type they disguised themselves to be. All the memories ranging from the scene where my friend Isaiah Abraham was killed, how I cried at his tomb in Kongor, how the bullets fired everywhere over my home and the neighbourhood on 16 December and how friend like Makuei Tuok told me later that day how he left the bodies of his brother Duop and another relative lying in the pool of blood shot dead by his colleagues from the national security at the compound of their Juba’s Gudele home as he ran for his life to UNMISS base. The scenes in my mind were too many but I remembered the songs I listened that week in preparing for that news; “Nearer My God To Thee” and “Abide with Me” I was convinced that my brother Nywon was not alive. I lived in Ayod for years as a pupil and I know every corner of Ayod town. So it was pointless to believe that he was missing at that place for 10 days without any trace and that he could still be alive! On 31 May 2014, I wrote to Simon Tuong in Waat and he told me that he would look for some guys to come and speak to me. I was now sure that my brother was not longer there and the fact that some guys would come to speak to me, was a clear sign of no hope for him. I told him that I am man and capable of receiving any news of any kind. He never spoke to me further though I kept putting pressure on him to tell me the truth. Even my own uncle who left from frontline for Addis for some personal matters wasn’t able to tell me the truth when Simon gave me his contacts and connected with him. He told me a version which I was sure wasn’t correct about Nywon. 20 June 2014, I put a lot of questions on Simon as he appeared online, telling him to be honest of why everybody was quiet on the matter of Nywon and everybody including his colleagues at the frontline tended to avoid speaking to me, I told him that my feelings have clearly pointed that Nywon is not alive. I reminded him of other many relatives and friends the family has lost since December 2013 and it was pointless to hide the death of Nywon from me when I am his own elder brother. Simon picked his satellite phone and spoke out; “Boutros, I am sorry, we have not been telling the truth, Nywon had been killed by the government tank since April 2014 at the battle for Ayod and I have been telling those of your uncle and other guys fighting with him to tell you the truth and I didn’t want to speak to you alone because the matter was sensitive”. The news though I was prepared to receive it in my mind and heart but it was so shocking and I felt as if; I was pricked onto the ground and the whole world went red over my head. We cut the communication and we returned to the Skype chat. “Courage, Nywon is dead”. He said. I left the chats and that marked the start of another ‘December’s ordeal’. I went to my room at the University and started to be in tears. I remembered all the words Nywon told me in December, how he cried when he thought I was already part of statistics of Juba killings by the militias of a man whom both of us voted for in 2010 to be the President. I recalled all family members some of whom like him died during the liberation wars of South Sudan and without families of their own. I recalled uncles Chaa-ngun Kwan Gai, Gatkuoth Yian, Buom Jong, Thiok Mathot, cousins and nephews like Dak Koang, Mawic Koang, Gai Kan, Luony Machar, Liom Biliu, Chuol Biliu and several more who sacrificed their lives at the altar of the liberation and some of whom, we never found their bodies as well. Tribute: Today 27 July 2014, I decided to pay public tribute to my brother Nywon not in tears but to congratulate him of having died for me, for our family members, for his relatives, for his fellow citizens and indeed for his country. From the 1st day of July onwards, I decided never to shed tears for him because doing so, is a complete betrayal of those who died along side with him and those who died in December at the hand of the man for whom we had betrayed South Sudan by voting for him, thinking he would use our votes for developing South Sudan, little did we know, our votes would kill us on 15 December 2014 hitherto. Nywon never decided to go to the bush as he wished, had it been love for rebellion as others with pseudoic minds would say, he would have joined Gen. George Athor or Gen. Yauyau’s rebellion. Therefore, as a young man though a well trained Wildlife Officer, he never chose to jump into rebellion that is ongoing in South Sudan but he was pushed to leave Juba for his life and he was provoked and angered by the news that family members such as Peter Gai Jiel and others plus myself were presumed dead. Any person of conscience could not have remained in Juba if he had an opportunity to escape and so Nywon got it right to flee and as he clearly stated to me in December when I spoke to him, he was aware to die but he was ready to die at the battle rather to be slaughtered like his deceased relatives. Surely, he was a prophet of his own fate! Dear brother, like our relatives, known and unknown fellow citizens who died over the last 7 months, your departure is so painful. This is so as I remained without you forever and finally, what the government of Mr. Salva Kiir through his agents has been trying for the last few years over my life since 2 August 2011 when a concoction was made that I was killed in Juba, has been finally achieved and you are dead! Thank you for dying for me and for your country. You died because you wanted us to live in an equal society, you died because you wanted your nation to be governed on principles based on justice, equality and equity for all, you died because you refused to be slaughtered by a man you voted for; Mr. Salva Kiir, you died because you never wanted to be in a country where reasons and principles don’t govern the dictates of the government but whims and personal hatred filled the thinking balloon of the regime. We thank you and we honour you like the rest of your fellow citizens who perished since 1955 to date, hoping for better life for all and for South Sudan where equity and equality govern the conscience of the leaders whose hands the governance of the public matters have been entrusted. MESSAGE TO OTHERS: There are those who are very ignorant of what caused the current war in South Sudan, people who are so naïve and do not know the truth of the matter, these include some South Sudanese and hooligans at the international levels, who think the war is between Dinka and Nuer hence a tribal war; I warn that such persons do not deserve any forgiveness from the victim families. They are what recently a South African Transitional Justice expert described as “bloody entrepreneurial industrialists” One of my relatives cried over the phone recently when he heard that Nywon was dead. He broke into tears and said; “the Dinka killed him again like our relatives in Juba”. I said, he was not killed by Dinka but a clique led by Salva Kiir who brainwashed others that there is a tribal war just to achieve his ego but we knew what was transpiring within the SPLM party leading to the concocted military coup de’ tat. Let’s not generalize all Dinka but a few led by Salva Kiir and Paul Malong whose conscience has submitted and determined to cause irreparable harm to South Sudan. Take Note comrades: I urge and call upon all peace loving people to push for peace between the warring parties but not to narrow it down to Dinka vs Nuer. Dinka and Nuer angle was brought into play by Mr. Kiir in December when he ordered the killings of the Nuer in Juba to buy back the lost support from some Dinka knowing well that the Nuer at the grassroots would not tolerate the massacres of their loved ones from Juba. This in the thinking of Mr. Kiir, just to make the whole discourse appear as if the Nuer under Riek Machar were taking over the leadership of Salva Kiir whom Kiir himself described last year in Warrap as ‘belongs to Warrap’. Let’s remain united when we can as brothers and sisters and above all, as fellow citizens who have a common destiny of sufferings, our past agonies by our enemies must continue to define our common front for justice and equal citizenship. We must as a matter of necessity, face the common enemy of South Sudan, mark my words that it is the clique in Juba. As Chairman Dr. Garang would love to describe the NIF regime, he would not have failed to describe Juba regime today as “too deformed to reformed” Final words: Thank you so much dear brother Nywon, for dying for us and as bad leadership has forced you to die in the bush and with your remains unburied as though a fly and robber but to us, like several more of your fellow citizens and colleagues who perished for our cause and the posterity, you remain our sacrificial lamb, in life and death, rest assured, your elder brothers would never betray you. We will remain opposed to the deadly regime in Juba and as we hope for once again a peaceful and united South Sudan, where a state belongs to all citizens and not a clique, we will remember you. Remember our family friend and colleague Isaiah Abraham was the first victim of Salva Kiir’s dictatorship. We thank you all and may your all souls rest with the Lord. Kueeh-Nyaang, I remain without you and though finally Salva Kiir’s regime has succeed over the remaining hope being you behind our family, but I assure you of our firm stance against injustices perpetuated by this deadly regime and we will continue to do so to the end in whatever means we can, until South Sudan is fully returned to South Sudanese not a clique. Thank you Obwony for dying for us and you can be sure to have left men who will always remain asking “why you died and how you reached the bushes of Jonglei” My heart and prayers to all living and dead victims of a Juba regime without conscience. May the Lord bring peace to the dying and oppressed majority poor. End Contact us if you wish on email: biel.llm.up@gmail
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:04:44 +0000
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