Article By Okello

Dear Okello.

I recently came across your article that you tittled "War Does Not Pay: It is Time for Law and Order" written on September 14 2006. I don't know if you will get this message. If you do, I want you to think and asked yourself these simple questions.

A: Can it be easy for someone who lives in a place for more than 5 decades to be relocate to another place?
B: Will my insulting words help releave the anger of embader to release my home back to me?

You wrote your article like a dedicate educated man, but the content of your message contains many ruthless terms that does not associate with the title of your article. Calling the Lou Nuer and Nuer in general with those many names cannot help Anuak plaintiffs to win the claim under the GoSS legal rules. Also, I am not sure whether the words for peace in Anuak means to call Nuer nomadics, having trauma, warlords and many other insulting words.

In this regard, you need to think again of ways to approach Lou in order for you to return to homeland Akobo. Lou Nuer from villagers to officials have tries their best to welcome Anuak back to Akobo, but Anuaks are running away from the welcoming, what can we do? You asking a question that the commisioner of Akobo had called Anuak to come, come where? what welcoming word do Anuak people exactly want to hear? have you ever dream that Lou Nuer will leave Akobo in bush and Anuak will come back find no Lou Nuer sitting in Akobo? I do not think such thing will happen until the end of this world.

My friend, Okello. No one from Lou or entire Nuer can deny the fact that Akobo is a Land of Anuak people. The only thing to discuss in my idea should not be the name or the background of the area, but how Lou got into the land. If we all know the answer, then a comprehensive peace should be established for Lou to return to their orininal places, or find a nother mean to negotiate and live together with Anuaks as brothers in one country. That is the only solution my friend.

Another point I want to aware you about is do not forget that many Lou including myself are the original citizens of Akobo. There for,no one even the government of South Sudan or whatever lawyer you file your claim from has the right to force Lou to leave their homestead. We, Lou have every right to tell anyone including the government you're complaining from to shut up and leave us a lone. The government cannot do anything about this case unless Anuaks provide substantial evidences to convince Lou, or this could be upto Lou to leave the land to Anuak brotherends in good negotiation way.

Anuak people has the Anuak Justice Council, and I assumed some Anuak legal experts are there to carry out such claim in legal way and come back to tell the vunerable Anuak society what the law say about the rules of the land and properties. The entire Anuak Community particularily the Anuak Akobo should refrain from writing unnecessary messages to the media in regard to Akobo case.
If your claims is presented in legal form, the court or the government where you file your claim will inform Lou of the on going court procedures; there for, the Lou Nuer legal team will get ready to defense in any illegal action against its society. Its only the law to tell who is right and who is wrong.

Finally, failing to compile the right words to impress Lou politically would lead Anuaks to stay claimants from generation to generation.

In regrards.

Yrs.
Kueth Yul Dieu






By Obang Kello *
September 14, 2006


This is a message to both warlords and peaceful people. War does not pay. The Anyuak have said many times even in front of the GoSS President that they do not want their voice heard through violence. How much more can this position be made clearer to the Lou Nuer warlords? In recent article published by the Independent on line: “The crisis in the Horn of Africa: Nomads with no future,” (08 September 2006) herdsmen from 60 tribes including two Nuer clans, the Lou and Jikany Nuer who have fought a savage for decades gathered in Ethiopia, united by the battle to preserve their way of life. According to the article, for the nomadic herdsmen of east Africa, this was an opportunity for their voice - so often ignored by their own governments - to finally be heard. Is not the peaceful way the Anyuak want to get their land back from nomadic tribe?

Sudan Radio Service [SRS, Nairobi] went down to Akobo and spoke to the people on the ground. Chief Chol Odio Omot did not talk of war. In simple but clear terms, he explained the misery of his people whose ten villages are occupied by settlers at this time. He said the local government did not do enough for the Lou to vacate the villages. He did not threaten anybody. The local commissioner himself acknowledged land property rights of the Anyuak. Yet, he has done nothing than calling the Anyuak to come back. Come back where? The Anyuak villages are possessed by the Nuer. Is this call legitimate? Does it come from the heart or is it not a mockery? Not because the Nuer do not know what is bad. It is that you got it and telling the Anyuak to fight back for it. Unfortunately the Anyuak have taken the right approach by engaging the GoSS to find peaceful solutions. If you want war from the Anyuak you will not get it. You can fight among yourselves. That is good for you. You like it all the time. The Nuer is the only tribe in Southern Sudan with intra-tribe war as a way of life.

In Anyuak terms, peace is here. A government is here. War does not pay. People have suffered long enough. Any unnecessary harm or death must be avoided. The brunt of this burden is on the GoSS to apply the law, order and freedom we all fought for with the Arabs. Domination of one tribe by another must not continue. If you cannot understand this, then it is you having some sort of trauma if not knowingly refusing to understand. They are traditionally sedentary in their land. They are not nomadic tribe like the Nuer who have no future when there is a real law and order in the country. Thus, it is not the Anyuak problem to find a land for the Nuer settle. We just want our land back you took in amid of nomadic way of lives, and two civil wars. The hot blood who are more direct about fighting are frank than those people who do not know the proper time line of history. All migrations came to a halt in the 1800s. All tribes stabilized under British rule in the Sudan within established boundaries. Those boundaries were in existence till early 1960s then broke down around Akobo at the onset of the liberation moments. This is the time when the Akobo Anyuak started to be vulnerable for hosting the liberation movements. The Anyuak of Akobo did not complain to any government before that time because they were happy in their homes. You can refuse to understand it. That is your problem. If you continue to make historical arguments to justify the Lou Nuer presence in Akobo, the more you show to the world [and the Southern Sudanese in particular] how much you don’t know. You fail arguments because of lack of facts at your disposal. If you don’t understand the time lines you have no ground to stand on. The more you attempt to insist, the more you feel guilty. You know you are wrongs. You admit to yourselves in privacy. Most importantly, the Anyuak will not back down in their engagement with the GoSS in spite of all your war threats.

Here is an example familiar to the Nuer very well. During the dry season the Nuer of all clans go cattle-camping at water points for grazing. Families and clans camp at the same sites every year. Should another family or clan camp at the wrong site it generates enough reason for a fatal fight. If the Nuer can kill themselves for seasonal camping sites, is it wrong for the Anyuak to talk when they lost the permanent homesteads? You claim to be intellectuals, kind, young, reasonable and smart. Do you and the MPs have moral ground to stand? Talking about the MPs someone said Anyuak were jealous of their positions. Note that all people cannot be MPs or ministers. Anybody can contribute in another way than being MPs who are politically misplaced. The assertion in response to Mr. Ojoch’s article is irrelevant. The MPs’ spokesmen must find some other way to attack the Anyuak. The problem is not about personalities being jealous. It is about unnecessary invasion. Very seasoned intellectuals must talk along those lines. Attacking individuals is not a good presentation in civilized societies. It does not help you in your quest for more lands. However, you can continue to degrade yourselves in front of the audiences. It is one of your (Nuer) tendencies. Sense of shamefulness does not exist in the Nuer culture.

Talking about MPs again, it is proper to criticize them when they do not conduct themselves appropriately as leaders. Your MP reduced himself to an ordinary tribal leader by taking sides for the tribe to rally around him obvious in the various articles from the Nuer circles. If the MP can spill out that much he must have done so much damage to the Anyuak behind the scene by abusing his position. Anyuak are not blind to this sabotage. It has been the Nuer work through the ages. Some writers have talked about Nuer having bought Anyuak land with four cows. This is a useless assertion because the whole county does not worth four cows. No authority in Anyuak land that could have sold land to some selfish groups. It is only the language of cheating, intimidating and tormenting others. Let all the birds and flies laugh at the writers.

In spite of all this rhetoric the Anyuak will stand the ground with the GoSS, which is the power at this time. Southerners wanted their own government. Here it is. The GoSS is for peace and that is why it disarmed the Lou white army and other militias in the country. Recently all other Lou members put down their guns peacefully. This is what they should have done before they lost lives and cattle. If the GoSS is able to disarm for justice, it should not be difficult to pay justice to the Anyuak. The Anyuak are not demanding for new land. Simply they want their villages and land back from the ungrateful neighbor. The GoSS has a stake to deal with. It is not like the time the Arabs let loose tribe against tribe. Listen, the war is over. It is time for law and order.

*Obang Kello is a Southern Sudanese living in Port Sudan, and can be reached at obang_kello@yahoo.com

Dear Yuldit,
It has been long. Yes, well said, but this individuals will remain claiming even when the South Sudan get an independent. There is no doubt that Anyuak who live in diaspora make the issue of Akobo as their daily food. Nevertheless, there will never be a change to this claim except the peaceful settlement through recogninzation of both community to live in peace. Anyuak of Akobo were already there. Whoever left behind should go there to build his residential area, period.


Peter

Thank you Peter, yes it has been a while. I had too many things to taking care off including some bad news back home. Thank you for checking. Yes you're right , Anuaks had already been welcome home, but they seems to dislike Lou around them which will take them far beyond what they expected.

Yeah, I uploaded the pictures you sent last time on the web today, you can check some of them in the home page and the rest in the Community Album. I think they can see themselve now if they have access to the internet back home.

Take care brother.

Yrs.
Yuldit