Press Release
Nuer Supreme Council (NSC)
October, 12, 2009
The Nuer Supreme Council strongly condemns armed hostility in Bentiu, capital of Unity State, between the SPLA armed forces which led to innocent civilian deaths. We are also appealing to the international community to intervene to save peace in South Sudan by addressing the problem of Taban Deng Gai. Contrary to the position taken by the SPLA army in Juba, the clashes of October 2nd in Bentiu town between bodyguards of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA and troops under the command of Governor Taban Deng Gai were politically motivated and designed.
Ever since the appointment of Brig. Gen. Taban Deng Gai, Unity State citizens have been living in fear due to abuse of power by the State Government. The Governor has turned the SPLA forces in the State into his private army to intimidate his political rivals and those who oppose his mismanagement of the State’s funds. The Government of South Sudan (GoSS) has capitulated since 2005 to his financial extortions and allowed him to turn the army of the South into a private army. The Governor paid and equipped the SPLA forces in the State and commanded them as he wished. He bought cars to most senior officers and gave them bonuses whenever they carried out his orders to arrest his political opponents.
The Interim Constitution of South Sudan and the SPLA White Paper passed into law by the South Sudan Assembly do not permit any Governor to use the SPLA Army as a private army. According to these legal documents, a Governor of any State cannot pay a national army and give them orders to do his dirty work against political opponents. South Sudan is the only place in the World where the Governor of Unity State has turned a regional army into a private army.
Many peace-loving Southerners including the Nuer Supreme Council are troubled by the uncivilized aggression against civilians in the process of Governor Taban Deng Gai to neutralize Paulino Matip. Rivalry between Matip and Taban goes back to the 1998 when Taban Deng Gai assumed the governorship of Unity State through a Presidential Decree although the people of the State elected Paul Lily earlier as the Governor through democratic processes. When the citizens of the State protested against such undemocratic appointment, Taban Deng responded with military might which resulted into a full blown confrontation with Paulino Matip. The military confrontation led in part to the collapse of the Khartoum Peace Agreement, which was signed in April, 1997.
In Southern Sudan, Governor Taban Deng is known as a human agent capable of paving the way for the collapse of any peace. He is a scheming politician who could be used by enemy of peace against his own people. Now the people of the South are deeply concerned that Taban Deng may collapse the CPA as he did to the Khartoum Peace Agreement in 1998.
When President Salva Kiir appointed him as the Governor of Unity State in 2005, he promised his supporters that he would never leave the State to anybody again or he would leave it completely destroyed beyond repair. Taban then started plans of taking over the SPLA army via bribing the leadership of the GOSS with Unity State’s oil share. The senseless lose of lives in Unity State occurred since Governor Taban Deng Gai took office, including the assassination attempt of State Minister of energy Angelina Teny, in December 2008.
Prior to the attempts of Governor Taban to disarm the bodyguards of Deputy Commander-in-Chief, 1st Lt. Gen. Paulino Matip on October 2nd, the Deputy Governor of the Unity State and the Chief Security official contacted the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and informed them about Governor Taban Deng’s plans to disarm the Deputy C-in-C. On October 1st, the UNMIS officials went to the resident of Paulino Matip in Juba to inform him about Taban’s plans and cautioned him not to respond for the sake peace. The UNMIS advised Paulino Matip not to worry and leave the matter to the UN to address. The new SPLA Chief-of-Staff, 2nd Lt. Gen. James Hoth, was in attendance when the UNMIS briefed Paulino about Taban’s intentions to wage war against Paulino Matiep in the pretext of disbarment. On October 2, 2009 waged aggression as planned and it was confirmed that 22 people lose their lives regardless of the UNMIS promise to prevent it. Victims of such senseless aggression were innocent children, women and some ordinary SPLA soldiers who could have died in the frontlines against the enemy should another civil war occur. Unfortunately, in the face of such uncivilized lose of civilian lives, the GOSS chose the opposite. The Commander in Chief of the SPLA, 1st Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir, succumbed to the blackmailing of Taban Deng and allowed him to use the SPLA as his private army to target political opponents and civilians. In the press conference he conducted on October 3rd in Juba, President Kiir stressed that the Governor of Unity State should not be expected to pay the salaries of members of independent units. The President admitted that Taban is the financier of SPLA forces stationed in Unity State in violation of the SPLA White Paper and the Interim Constitution of South Sudan. The intellectual community of the South was caught off guard by the admission of the President because if Taban Deng is authorized to be the financier of the SPLA army, it follows that Taban is either the shadow C-in-C of the SPLA army or Salva Kiir has yet to learn his constitutional duties. It is unconstitutional that Governor Taban Deng Gai could be the one to pay an army which is allocated 60% of South Sudan budget by the Assembly.
Therefore, the international community must forcefully intervene to achieve the followings recommendations:
1. The removal of Governor Taban Deng Gai is a prerequisite for peace to prevail in the entire South Sudan. When Taban Deng Gai ran away from the Unity State in 1998, the people there enjoyed relative peace and started to live normal lives. The return of Taban to Unity State in 2005 is a threat to regional peace because any military confrontation can lead to the collapse of the CPA.
2. The UNMIS forces in Unity State should be mandated to protect civilians from Taban’s private army in case the Governor continues to rule with impunity and blackmailing.
3. The UN Security Council needs to address the leadership failures in Juba. Currently, insecurity in the South is worse than Darfur because the leadership of the SPLM has no direction and crippled by corruption. The collapse of the CPA would trigger humanitarian crisis in the region and it’s the responsibility of the UN and the World Superpowers to take seriously leadership failure in the South as a threat to international peace.
4. The UN carry out an independent investigation prior to Oct 2, 2009 incidence in Bentiu, Capital Unity state and bring those who collaborated with Governor Taban Deng in carrying that malicious attack on civilians to justice.
For contact and concerns:
The Secretary General Nuer Supreme Council (NSC) Calgary, Canada Email: nuersupremecouncil@yahoo.ca Tel: (403) 249 -5601
Are Arabs evil simply because they are Arabs?
Tuesday 9 February 2010
By Zechariah Manyok Biar February 8, 2010 — The struggle for freedom is a complicated thing. Oppressed people who struggle for freedom can sometimes turn oppressors if they are not careful in the (...)
When did the SPLM turn separatist?
Monday 8 February 2010
By Charles B. Kisanga February 7, 2010 — In their desperate attempt to mislead Southern opinion, Salva Kiir and the clique around him are going around claiming that they are the champions of the (...)
Maintain Arman candidacy for Sudanese presidency
Sunday 7 February 2010
By Koang Tut Jing February 6, 2010 — The National Congress Party’s latest political maneuvering must not blindfolds the SPLM from looking outside the box. The endorsement of Kiir by the NCP (...)