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October 3, 2012 (BOR) - Authorities in Jonglei State’s Pibor County has held talks with chiefs in the troubled area in attempts to persuade them not to allow their young men from joining the rebel group led by David Yauyau that is destabilizing South Sudan’s largest state.
- Youth from the Murle ethnic group dancing in Bor, Jonglei State, South Sudan, 30 July 2012 (ST)
Pibor County Commissioner, Joshua Konyi told Sudan Tribune that the rebels needed to recruit young people young people to implement their political interests, accusing the militia of killing innocent civilians in the area.
Last week in Thangnyang village of Gumuruk Payam [district], a chief was killed Yauyau’s fighters who came to the village and intimidated the chief for not allowing youth to join the rebels, according to a source in Pibor headquarters.
Commissioner Konyi repeated the oft-made allegation from South Sudanes officials that neighbouring Sudans in using Yauyau to destabilise Jonglei State to show the world that South Sudanese cannot rule themselves.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and South Sudan’s army (SPLA) witnessed on September 24 a helicopter drop items in a remote area of the state. The SPLA has claimed that this proves Khartoum’s links to Yauyau although UN peacekeepers have said it has not been able to verify who was behind the incident or what was dropped.
Khartoum denies the allegations and that it assists other southern rebel groups.
Commissioner Konyi asked civilians to give the (SPLA) to clear rebels from the area.
“Very soon you will hear that David Yau Yau has been killed by SPLA like Gatlauk [Gai a rebel leader who was killed two years ago] in Unity state”, said the commissioner.
Konyi called upon community leaders and civilians not to allow rebels,whom he described as enemies of peace, onto their land.
“Don’t allow rebel fighters on your sides, the SPLA is going to clear them away and the place will be peaceful once again. Youth will dance and everybody will do what he/she wants” said Konyi.
The meeting in Pibor town, which lasted from 27 to 30 September, was attended by South Sudan’s Deputy Minister of Commerce and Supply, Kengen Jakor, Jonglei State Minister of Youth and Culture, Baba Medan, other Murle intellectuals including Kenedy Gain, and 61 chiefs from the various clans in Pibor County.
The minister of youth said their mission was to tell the civilians to keep away from the rebels and to give SPLA time to protect them.
Last week, members believed to be aligned to David Yauyau, according to the Commissioner Konyi, shot three civilians near Pibor town, killing one person, leaving two others with injuries.
Yauyau launched his rebellion for the second time in April this having joined the government in 2011. He first rebelled after he lost his bid to become a representative for the Pibor area after election in April 2010.
(ST)
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