By. Mak Banguot Gok,
Opinion, revised at 6:15Am, July 7th, 2014.
July 6, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — I think the Nuer should only vintage on Equatorians for non-combats support and admit that Equatorians are not ready, and will never be ready anytime to fight for their rights, no matter how harsh the humiliation imposed on them by this brutal leadership would be. If you ever thought that our brothers might team up with the Nuer in combats against the Dinka genocidal government in Juba, then you may revive your anticipations. The Equatorians are always politically louse but will always remain parasites until they prove otherwise. My sanguinity on our much suffering brothers of the three States of Greater Equatoria to take part in this historic fight for freedom is less than 0.01%. But for you, that could be less or more!
I was forced to conclude so, and you can substantiate it, when I heard the Equatorians leaders ganging up against the media to blindfold the public, as if the world is just a group of primary school pupils. They were denying the brutal war that the genocidal regime has declared on our people of Equatoria, disarming, arresting, killing and torturing their sons in the army, which are reported as “drunken soldiers”. The genocidal government is deploying troops to murder and intimidate the Equatorians on their lands but their intimidated governors think they are in good terms with the government. Here is another Equatorian, an Army General at Bilpam, who was approached by his community recently in Juba.
Equatorians Chiefs, local community leaders, organizations groups, interlectuals and women groups appealed to one of the Equatorians , the Deputy Chief of General Staff of the faltered SPLA army. They were irritated by the unproven leadership; Why their (Equatorians) men and women in uniforms are still holding onto empty positions even after Dinka came to the point of disarming their children who are, in fact, the bodyguards of the Equatorians officials in the army. Don’t you think your leaders will be slaughtered like goats and chickens? Or your governors will never mention federalism and any other dreams the Equatorians have? Will you be slave forever? They have told you clearly that after Nuer it you, the people of Equatoria. They (Dinka) tried it on the Nuer in September in Juba before the massacre but now that they found it terribly hard on the Nuer, maybe it would be easy on the Equatorians. They have expressed their deep concerns on how imminent the Equatorian civilians will be hunted when all their children in the Army are disarmed.
This military man is Lt. General Thomas Cirino. You all know him as the only one of high-ranking military official currently representing the Equatorians at Bilpam. Surprisingly, what Cirino says to Equatorians was like this. ‘’ in 1992 when I defected from Mundukuri (Arab) here in Juba and joint the rebel movement, you Equatorians where exposed to jeopardy and slaughtered like goats by the Arab because you were not able to protect yourselves’’. And, now ‘’ if I defect against this Dinka government to fight for you as you all opted for, more than you were exterminated in 1992, this time will be worse simply because you are still in state of powerlessness to protect yourselves like what Nuer did against this Dinka government which relies on mercenaries’’.
Clement Wani, Bagosoro and not mentioning this Taposa man- Luis Lobong Lojoro were all saying the same as Jadala on the local Medias and occasionally in Juba. Who will be next after the three governors, which the region contemplates on while all in Salva Kiir government became a workbench of swashbucklers?
Wani Konga was contradicting himself by saying that “No one can sit on my head and the heads of Equatorials’ and goes ahead to say “don’t talk of the choice of your people like the federal system of governing” saying “the war which Riek Machar and the Nuer lead against Dinka government in South Sudan is not about how to achieve that system of governance”. How?
He knows very well that there are Dinka who want to sit on every South Sudanese’ heads, including the innocent Equatorians, who are even putative of their state of inferiority when a quest for national issue arises. Konga is well aware of what came first between massacre of the Nuer civilians in Juba and the quest for federal system of government throughout the ten states of South Sudan by the Nuer-lead rebellion.
Whoever criticizes the Nuer for taking up arms against the Dinka-led government, which massacred 10 of thousands of innocent civilians lacks mortal discretion. Fortunately, it is crystal clear that the Nuer, alone, suffices to topple Salva Kiir, no matter what the heaven reserves in store for him. When it is over, we will all benefit from the federal system that will utilize the national resources for the betterment of the South Sudanese people but not corrupt individuals toiling only on how one’s own bread should be buttered.
Equatorians in Juba have contributed to the level of anguish by the Nuer community in Juba. Destruction of the Nuer properties in Juba after December, ransacking of the Nuer resources, demolishing Nuer houses, pinpointing the Nuer family’s residents to the Dinka mobs who had panic-stricken for innocent unprotected Nuer in Juba five days after incident. Majority of the MPs who rally that Salva Kiir should not step-down while chanting, “we shall never surrender”, in the parliament were Equatorians. Those are the Equatorians dancing on to the Nuer’s bloods but still want to be free from self-imposed marginalization.
If you scrutinize their comments, you can’t even tell whether they mean to frighten them (Equatorians) not to fight and dies or they really mean to spare their people from being killed by the Dinka in Juba. But how many times can you die? You would rather die fighting for liberation than being killed in cold blood while living as a slave. For me, the confusion created by the Equatorians leaders is not reasonable at all. It only wraps up the stance realities, which will slowly consume the dignity of the great people of Equatoria. The Equatorians generals in the army accustomed faint-heartedness and now they cannot mobilize even a single bodyguard to carry their luggage. You might think differently based on what you know about the people of Equatoria. Please put it on debate!
The author, Mak Banguot Gok,can be reached at makjohnson2005@yahoo.com.
