Salva Kiir: Losing the plot in South Sudan? [April 17th, 2013. Juba, South Sudan]
At the centre of South Sudan’s current troubles, one man stands out. His name is David Yauyau a rebel leader, who commands a rebel group in Jonglei State, which is one of the 10 states that make up South Sudan. Jonglei is the largest state by area in South Sudan. It is north of Juba and borders Ethiopia. The recent killing of 12 people: five UN peacekeepers from India, two United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) staffers and five civilians, has cast the spotlight on Yauyau and the South Sudanese military apparatus. A former theologian, Yauyau became a rebel when his efforts to become Member of Parliament for Gumruk in the Jonglei state assembly in 2010 failed. In 2011, President Salva Kiir extended an amnesty to Yauyau who appears to have despised this move as in April 2012, he rebelled again. The SPLA government has accused Yauyau of masterminding the recent attack, which was condemned by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who said, “The killing of peacekeepers is a war crime that falls under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.” South Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), has over 15,000 troops in Jonglei. So why is the region troubled? Colonel Phillip Aguer, the SPLA spokesman, has accused rebels loyal to Yauyau of masterminding the attack. But in a swift rejoinder Yauyau has refuted all allegations saying that his rebel band does not control Gumruk in Pibor County, where the attack occurred. “We made our position very clear in the statement we released yesterday when we learned that we have been implicated in the attack which occurred in area which is completely not under our control,” Yauyau said. “The United Nations Mission in South Sudan is free to conduct an investigation into the killings.” Emerging concerns Critical concerns have emerged after the killings of the UN troops. Colonel Peter Konyi Kubrin, who is the spokesperson of the Yauyau movement, has also refuted the allegations linking Yauyau to the killings of UN peacekeepers in Jonglei noting that the blame lies squarely with SPLA. “The incident took place in an area entirely under the control of the government forces. If there is anything, they should answer what happened,” Col. Kubrin says. “This incident is like the last year attack on the United Nations peacekeepers on similar mission when they were attacked by the same group. It was the SPLA which brought down the UN aircraft.” The chopper incident that Col. Kubrin is referring to occurred in December 2012 when the SPLA shot down a UN helicopter, killing the four Russian nationals who served as the helicopter’s crew. The SPLA later apologized saying it was a mistake. Yauyau’s rebels have pointed to this event, noting that SPLA is using its tactical errors as propaganda and trying to hide its “cleansing operations” in Jonglei. Allegations of state-sponsorship The altercations in Jonglei in recent weeks may have resulted in the Khartoum government backing Yauyau, an allegation made by Juba which is yet to be independently verified. Neither Yauyau nor Khartoum denied the claim. As it appears, disarmament is a major concern in Jonglei for Juba and the Yauyau rebels. According to Yauyau, the UN-led disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme (DDR) has been handled badly by the Juba administration exposing his minority Murle community to armed attacks. “One of the issues we have raised with different groups who have approached us including political leaders from Jonglei is the issue of security of our people. We told them we are not against disarmament but it must be done in a way that does not make others become vulnerable, especially those who have been disarmed,” Yauyau said. “Our people accepted to voluntarily surrender their weapons but what happened, they became victims of the project. Their houses were burned, thousands were killed. This shows that the disarmament was a deliberate exercise against our people. It was cleansing. They wanted to wipe out our people.” The disarmament issue in Jonglei has brought the SPLA into sharp focus. Several human rights organizations have since last year accused SPLA of fanning inter-communal fighting and provoking ethnic related skirmishes. Dr David de Chand, chairman of the South Sudanese Democratic Front (SSDF) has openly accused SPLA of deploying “secret tactics of committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity as well as ethnic cleansing under the pretext of the DDR Program in the last few years and drastically failed in the process because the DDR had been conducted unfairly.” Last year Human Rights Watch accused SPLA of widespread rape, torture and the killing of civilians in Pibor County. Then SPLA Commander in Jonglei, Gen. Kuol Diem Kuol denied all allegations. In the last two year cattle raids and inter communal fighting has left over 2000 dead. The inter-communal fighting in Pibor County mainly involves members of the minority Murle, Luo Nuer and Dinka Bok ethnic groups. Kiir’s new tactic “Operation Restore Peace” which is SPLA’s banner for Jonglei’s DDR, is overseen by SPLA commander General Peter Gadet Yaak. Just like Yauyau, Gen. Gadet also shares the same history. He once rebelled against the SPLA government in Unity state. By deploying Gen. Gadet to conduct disarmament in Jonglei, analysts have seen a clever play by President Salva Kiir. Security watchers say President Kiir is seeking to have Gadet prove his mettle and loyalty while at the same time using the battle loving General in the politically sensitive zone said to have vast reserves of oil and gas act as buffer in case of repercussions. In March skirmishes between the SPLA and Yauyau rebels resulted in some 160 people being killed. The SPLA later claimed that the army had killed 140 rebels. While the government has made claims of securing much of the territory in Jonglei, it is now emerging that this is not true. Last week Juba ordered additional troops to be sent to Jonglei indicating that the so called rag-tag army of Yauyau was inflicting heavy damages to SPLA after it changed its tactics from direct combat to guerilla warfare. Kiir’s hold on power is slowly unraveling. It would appear that he is most likely to go the Yoweri Museveni route of constantly reshuffling the military and being engaged with a rebel group for years. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
