Complaint of Chollo Community Council against human rights violation committed by President Kiir and Chol Thon

Chollo Community   Council

Khartoum, Sudan.

To: chairperson of Human rights Commission,

Geneva, Switzerland.

Date:  8th October, 2016

Your Excellency,

We, the  Chollo community council  are bringing  to  You,  serious  complaints  against  the government of  President Salva kiir  and Thon Chol, the Governor of the so- called the Eastern  Upper Nile state   for  the  grave human rights  violations against the peaceful Collo community.  We are raising a number of issues in this appeal. They include: grabbing of Malakal and surrounding areas; killing and atrocities against innocent Collo civilians. In fact the Government employed merciless attitude of killing, with the intention of forcing the people to evacuate their ancestral land. Specifically we would like to raise cases:

1) When President  Salva Kiir Mayardit  issued the  establishment Order  No 36/2015,  on 2 October 2015 of creation 28 states he gave  Chollo community  land  east of White Nile and along the Sobat River  to his tribesmen Dinka Padang in  upper Nile state. Since the beginning of land dispute between Chollo and Dinka Padang, it is the government that has been waging war against Chollo community on behalf of their brothers Padang.  As a result, Chollo community members became vulnerable and were displaced internally in the bushes and externally to neighbouring countries, specifically Sudan, where they now live miserably as refugees. Indeed, this inhuman act was a serious human rights violation against the Chollo community for which no action was taken against Salva Kiir and his governor Chol Thon.

2) Drastically and against all expectations government forces of President  Salva kiir Mayardit in collaboration  with Dinka tribal militia in Upper Nile attacked and massacred members of Collo community living in Protection Camp  at UNMIS  in  Malakal  from 17  to 18 February  2016,  where  40 people were killed  and  many injured. This killing of unarmed innocent civilians, inside a UN camp, was criminal and terrorist act of a first degree. Yet it didn’t get any deserving attention from the international community and other mandated bodies. By raising this matter again, we want the government to be held responsible for the crime and made accountable for its consequences.

3) You will be surprised to learn that since settling in the grabbed town of Malakal Chol Thon, the Governor of the newly created state, with tacit agreement of President Salva Kiir, has been destroying and demolished houses and confiscating personal properties and assets  which belong  to the members of Chollo  community in Malakal town. This barbaric behavior is unacceptable as it is another type of human rights violation.  We would like those wild actions stopped immediately and the perpetrators brought to book.

4) The latest episode of Kiir-Thon criminality is the dismissal of Chollo officials and workers from government institutions in Malakal and Renk. Indeed, by doing so President Kiir and Governor Thon have given themselves the right to deprive the dismissed staff of their government salaries. This decision was implemented before official division of public assets and the establishment of normal transfers. Ironically, non Jieng civil servants were informed that their salaries were transferred to their new states. Contrarily, the Governor of Western Nile state asserted that he never received the due salaries.

The real intention for the establishment of Presidential order No36, 2015, was to victimize the people of so-called Western Nile State, which the government considers as rebels even those who live within the government controlled areas. The important point to note is all Chollo civil servants never receive their salaries since the creation of 28 states.  In fact, President Salva Kiir and Governors of Eastern and Western Nile states must be made accountable for embezzling the  salaries which are binding contract  between the government and civil servants employees, so what does this ideology of not paying civil servants imply?

Those civil servants were victimized by the President Kiir project of dividing South Sudan into 28 states on tribal lines. Instead of solving outstanding problems, he injected more disunity and disintegration in South Sudan. Now, people are advising President Kiir to revoke the 28 states as a starting point to bring peace to South Sudan but president Kiir is not ready to hearken because he has been already enslaved by Jieng Council of Elders (JCE). Also the government employees who went abroad for medical treatment, as well as those who went for studies were similarly deprived and refused the payment of their salaries. The reasons are that these employees are from Chollo Community. To deprive and refuse the employees their salaries without justification is considered a violation of the human right under national and International Labour Laws.  

Your Excellency,

We,  the Chollo community council, trust that the cases we have brought to your attention will receive your due consideration and find appropriate ways to address them and thus have Chollo Community problems redressed even at long last.

High regards.

Samson Oyay Awin

Chairman of Collo Community Council

Khartoum Sudan

CC: Chairman of AU, General Secretary of UN, Troika Countries,(USA,UK& Norway),Chairman of JMEC,

CC: Chollo Community Members in Diaspora (USA, UK, Australia, Canada and Others)