The voice of The oppressed people
of The Sudan from Numle to Wadi Halfa and from Jananah to Kassla
Who is
Responsible for the Duk Padiet Attack?
By Chol K. Thon,
SUDAN
9/25/2009
Duk, a county inhabited by Dinka ethnic group, was ablaze Sunday barely one
month after its neighboring Twic East payam of Wernyol experienced the same
disaster. The same Lou Nuer youths who had been menacing Twic East have been
confirmed responsible for the attack on the payam administrative center of Duk
Padiet.
The attack never
before unprecedented in terms of the number of casualties, the strength of the
attackers and their target of attack, raises questions in the minds of many as
to who is the invisible hand behind this, who staged it and what could be the
motive. The massacre in Duk had had its tip of the iceberg in the Wernyol and
Baping attacks and therefore answering the questions which to us may be puzzling
requires us to investigate them in the light of the other attacks on Dinka Bor
soil.
Calling the attackers as Lou Nuer would be unreasonably generalizing the
community. The chiefs who facilitated the discourse between the Deputy Gov. and
the gangs’ leader would have been included. Labeling them as cattle rustlers
would not fit in with the fact that they did not target a cattle camp.
Mr. David Gressly, the UN Regional Coordinator for Southern Sudan, who had been
looking at the Jonglei tribal clashes from an economic point of view (as being
conflicts over land, pastures, cattle etc), was impelled to acknowledge that Duk
Padiet was a special case. In his words, the attack “seems to be different.
Cattle were not there. It was more targeting”.
Adding, Mr. Gier
Chuong, the Interior Minister, would rule out the possibility that the attack
was motivated by desire to loot cattle. “It does not look like [cattle
raiding],” "Because there are no cattle in the town. We believe it is motivated
or encouraged by elements we cannot pin-point,” the minister said.
To look at this attack using the same lenses we use for the Warrap, Lakes and
Western Equatoria skirmishes would defy reason. In Lakes State, for example, the
most recent encounter between Dinka Agar and Jur Beli was triggered by the
murder of one of Jur’s son which was allegedly blamed on Agar. The Aguok and
Apuok’s was over land (pastures). Most of these clashes occur between close
clans and the bone of contention can be identified with much ease. In most cases
they are generated by revenge. This goes on to suggest that we can understand
the Duk incident from a different perspective.
Who exactly is responsible for the attack (Duk attack)? The question seeks to
address the organization of the attackers, the history of the attackers, their
numbers, the weapons used, their target and everything else that can help us to
answer it. Let us go!
“Little is known about the man leading militia from Lou Nuer. Chibetek Mabil is
believed to be a former militia who never joined SPLA or Sudan Armed Forces
(SAF) as stipulated in the peace accord between Khartoum led by National
Congress Party (NCP) and former rebels the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A)”( Sudan tribune 22 Sept). The attackers are headed
by Mr. Chibetek Mabil, a man whose militia group was allied to SAF during the
war.
Militias were used
during the war to cause havoc to their own brothers and sisters in South Sudan.
They were used to make possible the Arab’s ideology of using ‘slave to kill
slave’. South Sudanese were known by the Arabs as slaves. Even the militias who
were supposed to be promoted to a caste higher than the slaves were equally
regarded as descendents of the same slaves. Their support for the Arab policy of
exterminating the South was never acknowledged by their Masters. The only thing
they were getting was meager amount of money which could be seen as a tool to
steady their shaking hands in case they realized that the blood they were
shedding was their brothers’. That was Mr. Mabil during the war but what is he
now?
“Though they [attackers] could be termed as civilians, they had military
formation; had uniform and carry new brand of G3 (Gimp three)," Gov. Kuol
further said. Gov. Kuol, being a former commander in the SPLA knows how trained
soldiers organize themselves when staging an attack. The soldiers are grouped
into units whose jobs are clearly defined. There would be a group firing
artilleries and is stationed behind the assaulting unit. There are those whose
job is to provide reinforcement in case the other groups are overpowered. There
are yet others who take care of the wounded. Soldiers from the same side are
dressed uniformly in order to avoid confusing an enemy with a fellow comrade.
The number of the assailants is believed to be thousands and this means they are
a group having some common cause. A cattle rustler cannot do all these.
The target of the attackers provides an interesting insight into how we can tell
apart these people from other criminals. Government units were mostly attacked.
Among the dead, about 29 are from the organized forces (army, police, prisons,
national security). Government structures were also burned to ashes. These
people seemed to be having a case to settle with the government. It was not by
coincidence that the town was targeted because Wernyol administrative center had
been hit just a few weeks before. So it is obvious that the target here was the
government. Could our civilians be so fed up with their government to the extent
that they would stage a rebellious attack? No!
The type and the number of the weapons used can provide us with a cue that these
people are not ordinary criminals. The use of new Gimp 3 implies that the
weapons had just been acquired. And from whom and where? The story of looting of
military equipments in Khorflus is a thing of a year or so ago and weapons
acquired then could not still be new. But why should innocent civilians loot
military equipment? How about the suspicion of the Jikany Nuer of Nasir which
led them to attack UN barges? Would a poorly armed civilian attack a government
unit in a manner that is suggestive of show of strength? Someone who believes
that they are stronger than our forces is doing this.
Most important of all the indicators that can help identify the group
responsible for the attack on Duk is the tactics used by this armed group. The
burning of huts with their contents is indicative of the scorched earth policy
used by trained assailants. The policy is aimed at starving the enemy to death.
The culture of killing without discrimination is alien to our South Sudanese
norms of behaving in war.
Mr. Luk Kuth Dak
has it better below: ‘The reasons are pure and simple: Firstly, the gruesome
nature in which the massacre was carried out is un-Nuer. Secondly, in the Nuer
culture – which I adore – children, women, young boys (unmarked) and elderly men
are all off the table, regardless the viciousness of a war’. (southsudannation.com,
Tribal wars: How Much Blood is Too Much to Bear). Mr. Luk goes ahead to say
that this manner of killing is particular to the Arab government which implies
that someone allied to the Arabs is responsible for the Duk attack.
In conclusion, the word “militias” fits the description of those who massacred
innocent children and women in both Wernyol and Duk Padiet. The NIF has been
famous for fitting Southerners against Southerners using their proxies
(militias) in order to support the notion that Southerners hate themselves more
than Arabs and that they are not capable of controlling their own affairs. This
means that they (Arabs) have to be our rulers in order to make up for our
deficiencies
