MR. PETER ABDULRHAMAN SULE:A MAN OF THE PEOPLE.

Satruday had become one of the most important holidays in our ountry, giving chance to very buisy people to attend to their own affairs as marrages, visiting dear ones, relaxing at home or etrieving some important documents in your dusty store.

It was on one of these Satrudays that I came upon a document which I
feared was loss forever.A paper on story of the missery of the
Collo people being masacred by the pro-government militia. Story
reflecting the agony of the marginalized masses of the Sudan
before the signing of the CPA.
In the year 2003 somewhere in March, the government militia crossed to the western
bank of Malakal and practiced scourge earth destruction of the Collo villages,
killing people of all ages they can lay hands on. The war was government's, but
fought by southerners (proxy). The plan was championed by some local politicians in
the goodbooks of the government looking for leadership of the state, and claiming
upper nile state as government territory, and demanding that the SPLM-United army
to leave the area as they had already joined the SPLM/A main stream.Thanks to the
aptness of the Collo sons and doughters who made the news become international in a
short time through the internet and TV-stations. The most important person of all
who confronted the government of the day in Khartoum was honorable Peter A/Rhaman
Sule member of the national Assembly. History is a bad as well as a good thing. The
grand children of the Collo people in future shall always remember this giant and
at the same time they shall also remember their own representative midgates who
failed to defend their interest at the time when most needed.
The story how honorable Peter Sule defended his beloved brothers the Collo;
Mr. Peter Sule on the 26/4/2004 placed a motion requesting the speaker to summon
the minister of defence to deliver a ststement on the security situation in the
Collo land which was his right abiding by Assembly by-law No.43.
He wrote "Hon. Speaker, the news coming from upper Nile state since March till now
is causing great worries to us in the parliament as well as the general public. The
news is about continous spilling of the native blood due to persistant attacks by
the progovernment militia on the Shilluk villages killing civilians and taking
their properties e.g. cattle and others, which resulted in forced migration and
displacement into the bushes and swamps which make them vulnerable to diseases and
wild beasts.We hear this through the international media without sympathy from the
government. And why the arm forces are silent without defending the people all this
time and without arresting the culprits and taking them to court. For these
reasons, we the undersigned members request you Honorable to summon the minister of
defence to this august house to explain on how and when these sad events started?
What is the nature of the problem? What is the size of the affected area? What is
the magnitude of the event in other wards, how many villages were burnt? The
stollen property (cattle, goats, money etc). How many deaths, wounded, displaced
(males, females children)? How did the militia move there to attack the un armed
population whith out the national army resistance? Lastly, we want to know who are
the leaders of this militia, and are they free or have they been arrested by the
peoples'armed froces?"
This petition was signed by 23 parliament members topped by Peter A. Sule including
some members from northen Sudan. The twit is, none of the two Collo MPs signed.
Still worst, it is gossiped that the Collo MPs went to the speaker and complained
that Mr. Peter A. Sule had no right to talk about the Collo Land, and it was their
duty to defend if the need be.
Many people believed that the speaker was part and parcel of the government plan.
Once he was given greenlight by the MPs of the area, he forgot the law and landed on
our brother in the most regratable behavior from such a position in the country.
The Hon. Speaker told Peter SULE the followings;
"1. You are not one of the Shilluks; therefore you have no right to raise any
concern on matters pertaining to Shilluk in this Assembly, even if it was not raised
by the members reprsenting the Shilluk. Thus what you did is out of bad intention."
"2. I was told that you met Dr. Lam when you went to Nairobi. Lam is now working
against the state.Thus your are staging war against the state."
"3. Iam protecting the state against your like, and will not abide by the motion
raise by you the other twenty people."

This dialouge between the speaker and Hon. Sule is quite interesting, like a
playwright in a movie between an Alabama plantation owner and an African forced into
slavery and still refuces to summit like the rest subdued by beating or threaten to
have his eyes pierced. Hon. Peter Sule stood tall, but even taller than the MPs of
concern, who had yielded like pupils to a brutal headmaster threatening dismissal or
beating. It was the policy of the stick and carrot. Mostly carrots as for those who
turned a blind eye to attrocities committed on his people shall be made into a
governor or a minister ...or....or.....
Hon. Sule a lawyer of first order put his case briliently which made the speaker
look funny.
"As an elected member of parliament" Sule adressed the arrogant boss, "I am not
bound by tribe or race or religion or color when I discuss issues. I have every
right to raise any issue about any place in the whole Sudan or any state in the
Sudan. It is not necessary to be a Shilluk to raise issues pertaining to the Shilluk
area. The speaker of the house knows exactly that he is an Arab, but he is persiding
over matters of the non Arabs with loosness and running the matters with arrogance
and without any remose that he is an Arab.Why does the Hon. Speaker want the conduct
of buisness in parliament to be done on tribal affliation? Is it because he is in
the fore being an Arab?" If this was an open court room, many listeners would have
been charged of court contempt because of laughter as the Hon. Speaker could have
found himsel face to face with a gaint who knew is legislative rights and a firm
conviction of plegde to defend the poor citizen, because neither the governorship or
a ministerial post were in his agenda.
"This way of thinking" Sule continued "explains the mentality like that of the Hon.
Speaker which manifests his color, and race in solving problems in the parliament?
Who can convince me now about the neurality of the Hon. Speaker? Is this not a clear
indication that how the speaker is behaving has to do with the conspiracy in upper
Nile state driving a wedge between the Shilluk and the Nuers? But rest assured that
the Nobel sons of Shilluk and Nuers are there with the wisdom to difuse the OLD idea
of divide and rule. The divide and rule politics are dead."
Hon. Peter Sule was very generous as he gave a sole searching lecture on politics
and democracy to his boss. We the Collo sons and doughters should be greatful to
Hon. Peter Abdulrhaman Sule a gentlman from Bari people who defended you when none
was there to do so

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Comments (1)

• 13-03-2008 13:45:22 |Unregistered| Sabino Tom Akonydit

  Thanks you comrade Aban, for your article. truely, in situations like that one, Sons of our beloved land stepped forwords, even when they themselves have no power to stop the atrocities. Unlike his collegues in the assembly, Sule registed a historical stand. And the painfull thing after that is, the very people who supported the event or were behind those atrocities, were later given big positions and imposed on the victims as commissioners, ministers, MPs & different organs of the party with out shame or any apology.
  That is the policy of panish or victimize the victims. No matter how long will it take, one day our respect will be restored & we will choose our leaders freely. for south is not yet free.

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