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The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) today said it is increasingly concerned by recent violence in Jonglei state that threatens the important gains made this year in restoring peace and security. “UNMISS is particularly concerned by the apparent emergence in Jonglei of an armed insurgency group linked to the militia leader David Yau Yau, which is believed to be acting in concert with groups of armed youths who have evaded the civilian disarmament operation in the state,” the Mission said in a press statement. “It is essential to preserve the gains achieved over recent months in the improved security situation in Jonglei and ensure the civilian disarmament process goes forward as a key element of this effort,” it added.

IRIN hat geschrieben:
SOUTH SUDAN: Disarmament and rebellion in Jonglei
11.09.2012 - IRIN

JUBA - A massive disarmament operation has netted thousands of weapons in South Sudan's Jonglei state, but security in what is one of the country's most marginalized states is now being jeopardized by a rebel leader on a recruitment drive.

The operation was launched in the wake of the killing in January of at least 600 people during an attack by Nuer fighters on the rival Murle community in Jonglei's Pibor County.
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Violence between these communities, which have a long history of tit-for-tat cattle raids, has subsided since the January attack.

Now, according to the government's military spokesman, Philip Aguer, one of the main threats to security in Jonglei comes from a rebel group which plans "take Pibor as a place to challenge the government of South Sudan."

Like many opponents of South Sudan's government, the group's leader, David Yau Yau, a Murle, had been granted a presidential amnesty and given a job - as a general - in the army. But he gave up this post and resumed his rebellion in April.

Aguer accused him of "instigating the youth of Murle not to accept disarmament" and of being behind a 23 August ambush that left 24 soldiers dead, 12 seriously wounded and 17 missing.

A few days after the ambush, soldiers came under fire again 60km away in Likuangole - a Murle town that was almost totally destroyed in January - prompting civilians to flee to outlying villages and the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to beef up the number of peacekeepers there.

Likuangole's only clinic, run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), was ransacked and looted during the January attacks, and has again been targeted.

"A number of buildings in Likuangole, including the MSF facilities there, have been emptied of materials in recent weeks," UNMISS Director of Communications Liam McDowall said, without identifying the perpetrators.

An aid worker who asked not to be named accused government soldiers involved in the disarmament operation of "stealing food aid and other humanitarian aid from civilians. They've been taking what they want from who they want".

"Given the fact that most of the communities are still trying to recover from the violence in January, the humanitarian aid represents a key part of their livelihoods and now civilian populations are without food or shelter," the aid worker added.

Few aid agencies now work in Pibor County and only two do so in Pibor town. Recent flooding means many parts of the county can only be reached by boat or helicopter.

Disarmament backlash

"The reason that Yau Yau has support is because of how abusive the disarmament process is," said another international aid worker who asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals.

This view is shared by elders and other Murle community leaders, who, in a 1 September letter to Deputy Defence Minister Majak D'Agoot, said the disarmament operation should stop so as "to discourage youth from joining David Yau Yau, as it is the main reason which made them join him."

Some reports suggest that Nuer as well as Murle youths are being recruited into Yau Yau's rebellion.

While there are few Murle in the state government, they "are not the only group feeling marginalized in Jonglei," said Judy McCallum, former head of peace-building NGO Pact's operations in South Sudan. McCallum is currently writing a PhD thesis on the Murle.

"I hesitate to state that only Murle youth are being recruited, but would emphasize more the fact that disenfranchised youth, who have little representation and little hope that their grievances will be addressed, are the ones being drawn into the militias," she told IRIN by email.

South Sudan started statewide disarmament in Jonglei in March, and last week claimed to have collected 12,000 guns there.

The state was a particularly fierce theatre of conflict during the 1983-2005 North-South civil war, with its Nuer and Dinka populations for the most part fighting for the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) - which is now the national army of South Sudan - while many Murle militia groups were armed by Khartoum to weaken the SPLA.

"The Murle have long considered the disarmament as another way to punish them, and a suitable guise to do it under," the aid worker added.

MSF noted an unprecedented level of "extreme violence" during this year's attacks, with the elderly, women and children targeted with unprecedented brutality.

Human rights and advocacy groups have repeatedly warned of the dangers disarming the state, pointing to the lack of a buffer zone between rival communities, the failure of peace talks involving youth leaders and the violence that accompanied previous botched disarmament efforts.
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Alleged abuses

In April, UNMISS said it was "very concerned about these reports of human rights violations during disarmament", but added it was "encouraged" by steps to bring perpetrators to justice.

In May, Navi Pillay, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged the government to end "longstanding impunity" and investigate "serious crimes" committed after the disarmament operation evolved from a voluntary phase to a forced phase.

She also urged the government to fulfil its pledge of establishing a Jonglei Committee to investigate violence - a body still not functional as of September.

Among the abuses cited in a recent Human Rights Watch report were "soldiers shooting at civilians, and ill-treating them by beatings, tying them up with rope, and submerging their heads in water to extract information about the location of weapons" as well as "rape and beatings and additional acts of torture".
[ http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/23/sout ... es-jonglei ]

"The documented cases are likely to represent a small fraction of the total number of incidents, because many victims and witnesses do not report the crimes to county authorities," the report said.

While describing security in Jonglei as "significantly improved," UNMISS in late August also reported "alleged violations including one killing, 27 allegations of torture or ill-treatment, such as beatings, and simulated drowning in some cases, 12 rapes, six attempted rapes and eight abductions," between 15 and 20 August.

"The majority of the victims are women, and in some cases children," it noted.

A resident of Pibor County who fled to Juba told IRIN that soldiers had "raped my mother and my sister and they tortured an eight year old. Why would anyone do that to a child, and why is no one caring about the Murle to stop them?"

Between March and 20 August, MSF treated 90 people with "violent trauma injuries" - including several rape survivors - in its Pibor clinic, three of whom died from their injuries.

The government and army have dismissed reports of widespread abuses as "one-sided", "inflammatory" and based on "rumour" and exaggerations by "politicized groups".

Although floods are hampering transport, more troops are being sent to Pibor County to take on Yau Yau and those who have refused to disarm.

"The process of disarmament will continue," said military spokesperson Aguer.

Cycles of violence

For Jok Madut Jok, an academic and Undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture, public statements welcoming a decline in inter-communal clashes are premature.

"The problem is that despite the lull in that conflict and in many other similar ones, this was not a result of a concerted program of security sector reform, reconciliation between the ethnic groups or a resolution of the root causes and issues that fan that conflict," Jok wrote in an article in the newly formed Sudd Institute.
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"Instead, the lull is simply part of the usual pattern of conflict, whereby the youth simply tire of fighting, take a break and only to resume when one of the unresolved issues triggers a new fight," he warned.

Even if the Yau Yau threat subsides, there are fears that revenge attacks will restart as rains abate in the coming weeks.

A woman with her two children from the Murle ethnic group, has decided to marry the Luo Nuer man who abducted her in December last year and live with him in Jonglei’s State Uror County. The woman, who has not been identified, was one of the hundreds of women and children abducted during the cycle of violence between Lou Nuer of Uror County and Murle of Pibor County between December 2011 and February 2012 [...] Inter-marriages between Murle, Nuer and Dinka Bor are not common. The rival ethnic groups, who have a long history of raiding each others cattle, often preach bad things against another one to discourage intermarriage. Abducting women and children is also common practice during raids.

Jonglei State Government handed over the stolen cows to their owners from a Murle Community to day in present of the two counties' commissioners of Bor and Pibor respectively. Bor County youth authorities are not happy with the handing of the stolen cattle without any proper investigation from the court of appeal. "The decision made by state security council was not covering a need of the entire community, the court procedures were not involved in the finding; it was security force to order for the collection of 418 cattle which we all here have doubt how did the four thieves managed to escorted such high number of cattle from Murle land to Bor? The case was not investigated by the government." Youth leader Philip Thon Ayuen told The Bor Globe [...] The handing over of cattle in Bor today is the beginning of the peace between the warring ethnic communities of Jonglei state.

United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General to South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, visited Jonglei State on Monday to see the attempts made by the state government to reduce the violence and to increase stability. After her meeting with the state government officials, Johnson said the peace and harmony in the state was being undermined by David Yau Yau’s rebel forces in Pibor county, especially in Lekuangole and surrounding areas. "We are worried this current peace can be undermined by the current volatile situation in Lekuangole", she said [...] The state governor, Kuol Manyang Juuk said the rebel attacked and looted the Gumuruk market on Sunday, September 23 after a fight between them and small unit of South Sudan’s army (SPLA) in the area. Gumuruk is one of the Pibor Payams bordering Bor County. According to Manyang, two rebels were killed in the fight, without giving further details. The Governor alleged that planes, suspected to be from Sudan, landed with logistical support for the rebels on September 22. Juba claims that the rebellion is backed by Khartoum, an allegation denied by the Sudanese government. The are fears that the militia may cause more problems in other counties if it is not controlled by the South Sudan army.

Pamuom cattle camp in Alian village of Jale Payam in Jonglei State’s Bor County was raided on Sunday by unknown gunmen, suspected to be from Murle ethnic tribe, according the the local MP for the area, Kuol Bol Ayom. Bol accused the youth of Murle ethnic tribes to have stolen 364 cattle from his village cattle camp at the time of peace. The raid occurred between 5pm and 6pm, with the footprints and cattle herding the direction of Pibor County, the home of the Murle, he said.

A heavy-handed government disarmament campaign to halt tribal clashes in South Sudan's swampy eastern grasslands has triggered a small armed revolt against the rulers of the world's newest state, threatening planned oil exploration in the area. The budding insurgency in Jonglei state led by Murle militia chief David Yau Yau, a former theology student, may not number more than a few dozen fighters. But there are fears it could escalate by feeding on local grievances against South Sudan's army.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has suspended some services near the remote South Sudanese town of Pibor, amid escalating violence. Its locally recruited staff and other residents of the towns of Lekwongole and Gumuruk have fled into the bush.

Es sind bisher vermutlich nur ein paar Dutzend Aufständische, aber der Konflikt könnte den ohnehin schwer angeschlagenen Staat Südsudan, die jüngste Nation der Welt, in seiner Entwicklung weiter zurückwerfen. Im Bundesstaat Jonglei im Osten des afrikanischen Landes versammelt Berichten zufolge ein früherer Theologiestudent namens David Yau Yau bewaffnete junge Männer um sich, deren Zorn sich gegen die staatliche Armee richtet [...] 'Die Entwaffnung hat ein Klima geschaffen, das die Bildung einer nichtstaatlichen bewaffneten Gruppierung begünstigt', sagte ein Entwicklungshelfer der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters.

Two people were reported killed by suspected Murle raiders in Anyidi village in Jonglei’s Bor on Friday. At about 5.00pm a group of armed raiders suspected to be from the Murle ethnic tribes shot two people dead at Thian-wei village, five kilometers away from the centre of Anyidi and stole cattle. The cattle were then confiscated from the raiders by South Sudan army (SPLA) peace and restoration forces member of parliament representing Bor, Philip Thon Nyok, told Sudan Tribune on Friday [...] Wech Ayom Jok and Wall Gai Ayuel, both in their forties, were killed while herding their cattle not far from the village, according to Nyok.

Five people were killed in South Sudan’s troubled Jonglei State on Friday, including one soldier, three men and a heavily pregnant women, local authorities said Saturday. In Twic East, a group of men who went to inspect a dike in Nyuak Payam [district] fell into an ambush laid by unknown gunmen in military uniform on Friday killing three of them instantly, the county’s Commissioner Dau Akoi Jurkuch told Sudan Tribune. In Bor County, a woman who left Kolnyang village for Malual-Agor-Baar on the White Nile River, about 13 Kilometers from Bor town along the Bor-Juba road, was shot dead by unknown gunmen. The same armed group are suspected of attempting to steal cattle near Malaual-Agor-Baar but were seen by the army who pursued the raiders for a short distant but did not capture them. According to the police who brought the corpse back to Bor town, the woman was eight months pregnant and was expecting her child to be born by the end of November. "She was shot on her left chest, and she died immediately. One of them came with the spear, put one of his foot on [her] chest and speared her chest several times, it is inhuman"

At least four people are reported wounded in an attempted cattle raid allegedly by members of the Murle ethnic group in Jonglei’s Akobo county on Wednesday. Akobo county coordinator, Joseph Jol, who is currently in Bor, confirmed the attack to Sudan Tribune in which four people, including a woman, were injured at Niew-Niew village, not far from Walgak of Akobo county [...] the attack was carried out by Murle raiders, intent of rustling cattle from Niew-Niew. According to Jooyul at 10.30am two men herding their cattle were injured when “attacked by Murle armed men”. The victims then fled to the village, pursued by their Murle assailants, where two more citizens were injured, including a woman.

South Sudan has decided to cease conducting civilian disarmament operation activities in Jonglei’s Pibor County, instructing the army to take “sweeping measures” to clear the area of rebels, multiple senior military officers and top-level government officials said on Tuesday. The decision to suspend hunting for illicit arms held by civilians in Pibor County was necessitated by increased attacks rebels loyal to David Yau Yau

The governor of Jonglei state says that the security situation is calm in Pibor county after three months of turmoil created by the rebel forces of David Yau Yau. Kuol Manyang, who returned from Pibor on 2 October, after spending two days in Pibor talking to the elders and chiefs to encourage the citizens to abandon Yau Yau, confirmed to the press at the airport that South Sudan army (SPLA) forces have taken back many areas which were under Yau Yau’s control. “I went there to see the situation and talk to the people and I found the security situation is under the SPLA control,” said Manyang.

A South Sudanese man working for the Plan International aid organisation in Jonglei State has been kidnapped and killed by rebels in Pibor County [...] Peter Milan, was taken from his house in Gumuruk Payam [district] in front of his family on 2 November by armed men suspected to be fighting for a rebel group in the area led by David Yauyau. His wife and children were not harmed in the attack [...] the group that took Milan were led by Lan Naiyo, a member of the Murle tribe who joined the rebels in August this year. The rebels took Milan across the river to Thiangnyang, a village to the east of Gumuruk town [...] The rebels then waited in Thiangnyang, for two days in order for Milan’s relatives to come and negotiate his release [...] The Gumuruk community brought the rebels 25 cows in the hope that the offer would secure his release. The rebels [...] accepted the cows and promised they would return Milan the next day. However, they reneged and killed Milan and left the area taking the cattle.

At least 19 militias and one South Sudan army (SPLA) soldier died on Monday, when the two forces clashed in Pibor County of South Sudan’s Jonglei State, the military said. The incident in Linkwangule Payam [district], according to the SPLA’s spokesperson, started on Monday night, when a group composed of about 50 militias loyal to renegade David Yau Yau, stormed a United Nations compound in Linkwangule, and requested them to evacuate the area before 10AM Tuesday.