By Peter Okan
Posted 3/11/06

March 11, 2006 - The Nuer monopoly across the Anuak land is apparent and damaging. The Nuer have been struggling to finish up the Anuak people and wipe them out from the face of the earth.  It is the Lou Nuer who are the cause of Anuak misery. It is time they are taught to respect human rights and to stop the bloody thinking. Where there is Nuer there is blood. To fight is a prestige to them. The Anuak hate that kind of lifestyle. The Anuak land is home to law, order and regulations. It is the Land of Kings and Chiefs.

The government of Southern Sudan is in place and trying to put together law and order that will stop all inter tribal fighting. But the Nuer have yet to learn to live under a government. In their culture there is no government. Every clan is equal. No opposition, no advice. Just fight. Their mentality is primitive, savage and barbaric. The Nuer is a brutal cult of paganism; a blind majority without a center of authority. It is a very unreliable majority that flows with the wind to where there is food and advantage. They are easily persuaded by the enemy to kill own people. We see them today with Bashir the Arab who is the enemy of the Southern Sudan. Their work with the Arabs will not subdue the Dinka nor succeed to spoil the CPA.

The Nuer must know that taking Anuak land is evil and wrong. No real human can be proud by doing evil things. It is known that the British established Akobo borders with Lou Nuer in 1912 to stop all the fighting. But the Nuer carry the fight in their heads as a way of life; a primitive way of showing strength and manhood. Fighting is a bad ideology. Only criminals base their lives on fighting, stealing and taking things by force. Robbery is a way of life for a criminal.

The Nuer falsely claim to be the majority. They want to conquer the whole of Southern Sudan and that they have the right to be anywhere. The Chinese are more in population in the world. Should the Chinese occupy the whole world? The Nuer motive is first to subdue the Anuak and then fight the Shilluk and thereafter the Dinka. This is a big and wrong hallucination that the Nuer suffer to miscalculate. They think as if they were born under curse.

However, the Anuak are still alive and will be forced to react to defend their land should the GoSS fail to settle the dispute in Akobo. It is not impossible to form Akobo People Liberation Front against the occupiers and settlers. The Nuer will bring all their power but will not kill the right of the Anuak. If they did not succeed with the Arab gun they will not succeed without the Arab gun. Generations die and generations are born. The Anuak do not forget that the Nuer told them loud and clear many times that: “We took Anuak land by the gun, the Anuak must take it back by the gun”. This is a very strong assertion that was said to please  the Arabs in parliament in Khartoum. All Anuak generations know it. The Nuer generations too know it. The Anuak will be patient until forced to react. It may not be too far.

Many things happened in our time. I am one witness. We still live with those things to date. The man who started the Anuak massacre and genocide is alive. James Sijin Banak was the executive director in Akobo in 1981-1983. He ordered the Sudan arm forces and police to kill the Anuak in Akobo in broad daylight. It was an attempt to wipe out the Ciro Anuak. He sent soldiers to Akobo old site and then to Ogilo up to Aguei River villages and murdered all the people including women and children. This man is not a pure Nuer. He is a Dinka but now a Nuer by chance. For him to be in Akobo forever he acted wildly against the Anuak for the Lou Nuer interest. He is not from Gon or Mor. He did something similar to what the SSDF did to Dinka Bor. The SSDF took the Arab Jihad to Bor just because it was Garang’s homeland. That killing caused the Dinka of Bor to migrate to Equatoria. The Anuak of Akobo would have been wiped out but because of the vast hinterland they were saved.

Other people behind Sijin were and are Timothy Kueth Luak Kok, Riek Gai Kok, John Luk Jok, Tap Kota, Wal Duany. These are the men that the Anuak will not forget. These are the contemporary elite giving advice to the Lou people to kill the Anuak indiscriminately. These are a think-tank group to safeguard the Lou Nuer interests at the Anuak expense. Their work is to devise strategies of how to kill and rule the Anuak.

The Nuer took great advantage by changing sides. Today they are with the SPLA, tomorrow with the Arabs; another day “nyagat” in the middle of nowhere. They got their food and guns which they used on the Anuak. The Nuer fought side by side with the Arabs throughout the 22 years of war. They are still a great enemy to GoSS. They see it as a Dinka government. Today a lot of them are with the Arabs making implementation of the CPA difficult. Bashir uses them as a trigger to enrage the SPLA to start the war. They are being used by Bashir against the Dinka and the CPA.

Riek Gai became a political Muslim and married an Arab woman. All this change of religion is nothing but political move to get favor in exchange for undermining the CPA and GoSS. Riek Gai is also a Dinka like Sijin, the notorious killer.

Historically, the Nuer did not have a border with the Anuak. It was the Dinka, Shilluk and the Maban that shared borders with Anuak. Similarly there was no border with the Murle. The Nuer came from Western Upper Nile [Bantiu]. The Murle came from Eastern Equatoria. The Nuer were brought by one man called Latjor from Bantiu to Eastern Upper Nile to cause all troubles to a peaceful people. Dinka, Anuak and Shilluk never fought one another.

Today we are living in a different era. We have a government. Even though most Nuer do not recognize it, this government is functioning and will serve all tribes. It is a matter of time before the Lou Nuer return to Waat. This government will not cheat the Anuak as did all the Arab governments who armed the Nuer during the war. It is also a matter of time for Bashir to drop down the political Muslims.

Without settlement to the Anuak land disputes, the intruders will have no peace and good sleep. Akobo is an Anuak sacred home. Waat is the Lou Nuer sacred home. Each party must be proud of their homeland. The Nuer party must prepare to go home in peace.