The Family of Nuer Prophet Ngundeng Congratulates Pagan Amum and his colleagues For Rejecting Riek

The Family of Nuer Prophet Ngundeng Congratulates Pagan Amum and his colleagues For Rejecting Riek Machar’s Rebellion
For Immediate Release
The Family of Nuer Prophet Ngundeng
May, 30, 2014
Family members of Nuer Prophet Ngundeng are profoundly delighted by the strong message of Hon. Pagan Amum Okiech and his colleagues in rejecting the armed rebellion of renegade Riek Machar who staged a failed coup on December, 15, 2013. The position taken by the former Secretary General of the SPLM and the former detainees is in line with the opinion of the people of South Sudan in regard to the senseless war Riek Machar imposed on South Sudan. There is no rational South Sudanese who could support the rebellion of Riek Machar that has resulted in the death of innocent women and children throughout the country. Only militant tribalists whose foresight is compromised by tribal hatred would support a war that has no clear national agenda apart from Riek Machar’s promise that “it is Nuer turn to eat the national cake”.
The people of South Sudan, who fought successive Khartoum regimes from 1983 to 2005, cannot agree with a power-hungry politician like Riek Machar who believes in violence as the means to achieve his political interests. After the conclusion of the CPA in January, 2005, the only thing the people of South Sudan want is peace in order for their children to go back to schools and for the parents to rebuild their livelihoods. Peace was the gift promised by the SPLM/A when the people’s Movement reached a deal with the Government of Sudan in Naivasha, Kenya. Dr. John Garang, in his speech on January, 9, 2005, told the people of South Sudan that “from now on peace will reign supreme and war will no longer kill the people of South Sudan”.
Hon. Pagan Amum Okiech, who was a signatory of one of the protocols of the CPA, witnessed the happiness and the celebrations conducted by the people of South Sudan at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi on January, 9, 2005. The people of South Sudan, who danced that day, were celebrating the coming of peace and the end of war. They were not dancing for the position of Dr. John Garang in the Government of National Unity. But they were sending a message to the world that the children of South Sudan would not experience war again.
Hon. Pagan Amum’s rejection of Riek Machar’s rebellion is something expected because no rational South Sudan politician would wish to plunge the country into perdition two years after the independence except Riek Machar who has a history of staging coups and rebellions to achieve a political interest. Despite what he did in 1991, many South Sudanese could not anticipate Riek Machar to plunge the country into abyss because he failed to secure the chairmanship of SPLM party.
When Riek Machar returned to the SPLM/A in 2002 after running away from Khartoum, he apologized to the people of South Sudan in Nairobi and declared that he would never start another war in South Sudan again. He reiterated the same when he personally apologized to Dinka Bor victims of 1991 at the residence of Rebecca Nyandeng Mabior in Juba in November, 2011 where he wept before a crowd of South Sudan dignitaries to show remorse. Nobody could believe that he was shedding crocodile tears to placate the unsuspecting Dinka as a strategy to get the political support of Greater Bor politicians to start another war in the country as he did on December, 15, 2013.
As Hon. Pagan Amum correctly delineated, Riek Machar should be regarded as the fundamental problem of South Sudan because he started a war twice in South Sudan that led to the death of thousands of innocent women and children. His 1991 coup led to the death of not only the civilians but also the heroes of South Sudan such as William Nyuon Bany (killed in 1995 by his orders) and Kerubino Kuanyin Bol (murdered in cold-blood by warlord Peter Gatdet Yak).
It could have been a colossal mistake if Hon. Pagan Amum Okiech and his colleagues had joined the rebellion of a man whose hands have been saturated with the blood of the people of South Sudan since 1985. The political history of Riek Machar in South Sudan is written in blood because most of his political and military decisions have never been free from death and destruction. When he led SPLA Muor Muor Division in 1985, his first action was to burn down thirteen villages in Nasir, displaced thousands of civilians and killed innocent souls in the name of fighting Anya-Nya Two militias. He repeated the same thing in Bentiu where he intentionally destroyed twenty three villages of Bul Nuer and killed innocent civilians including three chiefs. His penchant for human blood and corpse went too far when he cut off the head of Maliny Kawai in 1987 and hanged it on a tree at his Headquarters in Tharkuer for everyone to see.
Now that Hon. Pagan Amum and his colleagues took a nationalistic stance to distance themselves from South Sudan’s Jonas Savimbi, the family of prophet Ngundeng would advise them to negotiate with the Government of South Sudan to bring peace without the prophet of doom. As a signatory of the one of the protocols of CPA, Hon. Amum has an obligation to bring peace by mobilizing the world to isolate Riek Machar whose lust for power has no regard for human life.
In 1991, he started a rebellion against Dr. John Garang that killed thousands of innocent souls in the name of democracy. Within three months of 1991 Nasir Declaration, he mobilized 30, 000 Nuer White Army and ordered them to attack Dinka Bor civilians. That resulted into what is known today as 1991 Bor genocide. He repeated the same act in December, 2013 and the death toll of his rebellion is still rising and his use of the White Army to wipeout villages is still in place.
It is the obligation of the people of South Sudan to protect themselves and the country from Riek Machar’s rebels whose only objective is to turn South Sudan into Somalia where each clan is administering its own territory without loyalty to the central government. Members of Ngundeng’s family congratulate Maj. General David Yauyau for signing a peace agreement with the Government of South Sudan to cement the unity of various tribes of the country in the process of state-making and nation-building. The decision Gen. David Yauyau has taken should be emulated by Nuer renegade Generals who had been deceived by Riek Machar but have now realized that he was using them as cannon fodders to parachute himself to Presidential Palace in Juba through the backdoor.
The violent record of Riek Machar is something that should be seriously taken into account by the IGAD and the Western countries in devising a solution for a permanent peace in South Sudan. The bloody history of Riek Machar does strongly suggest that power-sharing with a character like him is a recipe for another war down the road in South Sudan should any political agreement include him in the interim government arrangement. In order to avoid war in the future, regional and international isolation of Riek Machar should be the best solution that would be consistent with historical facts that the people of South Sudan have witnessed since 1991. The international community should support the Government of South Sudan militarily to crush Riek Machar’s rebellion the same way M-23 was crushed last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo. No reasonable person would expect South Sudan to enjoy peace if Riek Machar and his loyal rebels return to Juba and enjoy the same government privileges as he did prior to his removal in July last year. It is a fact that Angola has experienced sustainable peace since the demise of Jonas Savimbi in 2002.
The family of Ngundeng is tirelessly talking to various Nuer rebel Generals to have a direct peace talks with the Government of South Sudan because their grievances are unrelated to greed and political madness of Riek Machar. The IGAD and the international community should work together with Ngundeng family to reconcile Nuer and Dinka in the grassroots level because such an approach is the only way to bring sustainable peace as it was done in Wunlit Peace and Reconciliation Conference between the Nuer and Dinka in 1999. The Nuer and Dinka civil population should be sensitized and educated by non-political actors to find their own reconciliation and peace by relying on traditional methods of conflict resolution that the two tribes used for thousands of years before the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium rule. Historically, prophet Ngundeng brought peace between Nuer and Dinka in the 19th C and was instrumental in discouraging cattle rustling between the tribes.
Therefore, the IGAD mediators and the international community should not focus on power-sharing between the rebels and the Government of South Sudan because such an approach is a recipe for another war down the road. No rational person can think that Riek Machar who has armed rebels would peacefully coexist with President Salva Kiir in the same government in a tribally-charged atmosphere. Such an arrangement did not bring unity between the North and the South but separation on July, 9, 2011. If the international community has no intention of polarizing South Sudan like Somalia, the best solution to achieve a long-term peace is for the Government of South Sudan to be supported militarily to crush Riek Machar’s rebellion.
For contact:
Hon. Gai L. Ngundeng
Chairman of Ngundeng Historical Society
Leader of Prophet Ngundeng Family
Advocate for sustainable peace in South Sudan
Email: [email protected]
Tel. +1 (613)501-3317 (cell)
Tel. +1 (613)421-4504

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