Open Letter to UN Humanitarian Coordinator: No Dinka IDPs in Ma’di Jan. 15 Politics, Uncategorized 1 comment From the office of concerned Ma’di community and Youth association: World wide: Mr. Toby Lanzer UN Humanitarian Coordinator Republic of South Sudan, Juba January 14, 2014 JAN/15/2014, SSN; Re: Do Not Resettle Dinka IDPs in Nimule or Ma’di Area. Dear Mr. Lanzer, Firstly, Ma’di Community condemns in the strongest term possible the barbaric killings of innocent people in Juba and elsewhere who were targeted based on their ethnicity and purported link to the incident of December 15, 2013. We extend our heartfelt condolences and sympathy to fellow country men and women who lost their loved ones in the senseless atrocities widely suspected to have been executed by men in uniform entrusted by laws of the country to protect lives and property of citizens. Mr. Lanzer, while we understand and share the pain of fellow citizens affected by the senseless violence and atrocities, we are deeply concerned and vehemently reject any plans involving the United Nations to settle IDPs in Nimule/Mugali or other areas in Ma’di land. Such a plan will be RESISTED AT ALL COST NOT because we do not sympathize with fellow citizens but because of lingering problem of IDPs mainly from Bor who illegally continued to occupy land in Nimule. And despite various efforts of the community spanning over the past eight (8) years, the government authorities (at County, State, and National levels) have deliberately refused to repatriate the IDPS to their ancestral home areas in Jonglei State. Instead, the State government decided to arrest our community leaders who have been relentlessly pursuing peaceful solution with the government authorities and the IDPS themselves. Our community leaders remain unlawful detained in Torit for over three months without charges filed against them in blatant violation of the National Constitution. We unreservedly believe the continued presence of IDPs in Nimule represent a long term plan of individuals in the current government to unlawfully grab the land the IPDs currently occupy while denying access to the lawful owners of the land. Below are some few points to make you understand what we are talking about. 1. IDPs from Khartoum and Dinka refugees from Kakuma camp in Kenya chose and were repatriated by IOM/UNHCR to Nimule instead of taking them to their homeland (Bor/Jonglei). 2. In 2006, the IDPs in Nimule agreed to Ma’di Community’s demand to be repatriated. All went well and the elders performed even a ceremony for IDPs to leave. The IDPs eventually refused to honor their commitment and instead opted to use intimidating tactics while the government continued to ignore the problem. 3. Following the signing of the CPA all communities in exile and displaced internally voluntarily returned to their home land except the IDPs in Nimule. Neither the government nor their leaders showed any interest to enforce the repatriation. 4. Orders from the President directing the IDPs to move their animals away from Nimule were also bluntly ignored by the IDPs. Instead, more cattle were brought from Bor to Madi area and being grazed in the national park with utter disregard to national laws. 5. UN officials acknowledged on record that the “problem in Ma’di area reached the highest level of government but the highest authorities in the land have no political will to act.” With the above issues and many others, the government unequivocally lost the confidence of the Ma’di people. And violence thus far has only been averted by the commitment to civility of the Ma’di people and their quest for peace. Unfortunately, it will be a grave mistake to assume that the community is incapable of resorting to other means to protect their right and that of future generations to their ancestral land. We wish to remind the UN officials in Nimule, through your Office, that the so-called Town Clerk of Nimule neither has authority nor mandate of the community to negotiate on their behalf or allocate land to the government. He is only a government civil servant, as per laws of the country, with no authority whatsoever in regards to land. Anyone dealing with the Town Clerk, as far as the Ma’di Community is concerned will be illegal, null and void. We further strongly wish to advise you that the past experiences are very bitter and we are no longer going to further tolerate land grabbing, abuses and insults of our people. More importantly, we are not prepared to sacrifice an inch of Ma’di land for IDPs and are ready to defend this position at ALL COSTS INCLUDING OUR VERY OWN LIVES AND YOU CAN COUNT ON THAT. The wise decision for the UN and its partners in government will be to take the IDPs to other places. Failure to take this advice seriously, the UN MUST prepare to share responsibility of inevitable consequences of unwise decision. We thank you for taking this message seriously John Batali Inyani Community representative & and concern Ma’di Youth CC: UN SGSR Hilda Johnson CC: UNHCR Head Office, Juba CC: Head Office, Juba CC: Governor Eastern Equatoria State, CC: Commissioner Magwi County, CC: south Sudan council of Churches[ SSCC] CC: UNMISS Head Office, Juba & All NGOs 1 Comment Maj. Andrew Tok Wakon January 15, 2014 at 11:37 pm From: Maj. Andrew Tok Wakon Subject: Governor Luis Lobong setting Dinka Militia Camp Southeast of Nimule Country: EES South Sudan Message Body: Governor Luis Lobong setting Dinka Militia Camp Southeast of Nimule From our reliable sources, we (the intelligence officers of pro-democracy fighters led by Dr Riek Machar), have uncovered the plan of Governor Luis Lobong, who is creating a camp to train Dinka militia in Luweri,a small village in Nimule payam closed to south Sudan- Uganda border. From our reliable sources the purpose of the camp could be used as a base to attack Nuers community in Nimule and other parts in Eastern Equatoria State. This is what the world must know, and should any massacre happened to our people in Nimule, we the pro democracy fighters will hold governor of Eastern Equatoria State Luis Lobong Lejore responsible for his action to train Dinka IDP inside in Nimule a village situated closed to Uganda border. According to our reliable sources in Nimule the governor asked Madi people to offer the place on the pretext of settling IDPs from Jonglei, but the Madi refused because they have no enough land and because the Dinkas in Nimule are already misbehaving in Madiland. But we the pro-democracy fighters know the ploy of Dinka supporter Luis Lobong. We are already monitoring the situation carefully in Nimule. Soon we will decide to act at the time of our own choosing to deal with murders that killed Nuers in Juba and elsewhere in South Sudan. We will go after them and defeat them. I would like to make sure our fight is not against the civilians, we have no war with our equatorian brothers in Nimule, they are our people like another deprived community, it is not our vision to hurt civilians population but governor Luis is playing dirty game for asking a settlement camp in pretext of IDPs but the actually plan as we discovered is a training camp rather than settlement for IDPs. We the freedom fighter would like to caution Lobong that this time around we are not going to leave any stone untouched when the time comes. Maj. Andrew Tok Wakon. Pro democracy fighter in EES
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:53:36 +0000