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Publié par | Xlibris US |
Date de parution | 23 mars 2023 |
Nombre de lectures | 0 |
EAN13 | 9781669871002 |
Langue | English |
Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.
Extrait
Clash of Tyranny and Justice
Garang Kuot Kuot
Copyright © 2023 by Garang Kuot Kuot.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2023904995
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-7099-9
Softcover
978-1-6698-7098-2
eBook
978-1-6698-7100-2
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
Rev. date: 03/23/2023
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
800066
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1Genesis of the Crisis
Economic Crisis and State Deficit
Unsuccessful Bailout Efforts
Minister of Finance’s Blunder
The Ministry of Education Factor
Governor Malong and the December 15 Crisis
Part 2Incarceration of Group 14
Thirteen Days in CID Custody
Machar Kunyuuk Police Station
Aweil Central Prison
Room 11
First Night in Room 11
Government Face-Saving Measures
Unilateral Return to Machar Kunyuuk Police Station
New Twist on the Bail Process
Part 3Life outside Prison
Difficult Wait
Another Arrest
Bombshell Confession
National Auditing Committee Report
Deceitful Reconciliation
Conclusion
A Tribute to a Departed Friend: Sabrino Majok Majok
Acknowledgments
I thank my wife, Anok Deng Kuom, who stood solidly behind me and assumed the role of family breadwinner while I was in prison. Without her commitment and support, I could not have written this book. Anok took great risks by sneaking exercise notebooks and pens into prison, which I needed for documenting our conditions there. She also risked sneaking them out when the notebooks were full. This allowed me to make detailed records of our case.
I am also grateful for her pictorial documentation of our prison ordeal. All the photos in this book were discreetly taken by her at various times using her phone, and she kept them safe for eight years until the publication of this book. I can’t thank her enough for her role in ensuring that this dark episode in our lives did not go undocumented.
I am also grateful to my late father (rest in peace) and mother for standing by me and providing me with their love, advice, wisdom, and courage I needed to survive difficult conditions in prison.
Similarly, I am indebted to Adhel Lual Riiny for her critical role during my incarceration, supporting my family with financial resources and for taking care of our baby, Arek, and Veronica Athian Lual for bringing my boys, Kuot and Tong, all the way from Nairobi to pay me a visit in prison, thus providing me with a renewed hope and resolve to face the next phase of my imprisonment ordeal and for also taking care of our children. I am equally indebted to Anger Kom Geng, wife of Sabrino Majok Majok, for her successful effort to alert the Canadian government about our plight and inhumane situation.
I extend gratitude to my siblings and cousins who were among the greatest sources of my strength and hope as they continued to be with me every step of the way. They include but are not limited to Arek Abuk Ajou, Dhuony Abuk Ajou, Kuot Abuk Ajou, Tong Abuk Ajou, Agot Abuk Ajou, Alek Adior Akoon, Anok Deng Kuom Jr. (Anok Athieng), Akec Atak Akur, Ngor Dengdit, Kuot Tong Kur (Kuot Mzee), Kur Tong (Kur Amel), Tong Adal, Yel Lual Angong, Ajou Garang Ajou, Makuei Amou Arek, Abuk Akot Dhieu … The list is too long for this space to accommodate.
I extend special appreciation and gratitude to my in-laws, who provided full care to our child in Canada, Kuot, while Anok remained caught up in South Sudan, where she struggled to get me out of prison. I am particularly indebted to Abuk Deng Kuom, Nyibol Deng Kuom, Kuol Deng Kuom, Aluel Deng Kuom, Deng Deng Kuom, and the rest of the family.
I am also thankful to many friends and colleagues who made my prison life bearable including Mareng Chuor Deng, Tong Deng Anei, Mabior Ngang Amol, Marv Koof, William Kolong Pioth, Zaki and Peter of Grand Hotel, Arol Aher Arol, Dor Alic, William Anyuon Kuol, Ajie Thomas Dhel, and Garang Lual Manyang to name but a few. I am indebted to Garang Kuel and Abraham Garang Garang who provided some necessary materials that I could not have accessed while I was in Canada.
I am truly indebted to Deng Deng Akuei (Deng Manyium) without whom life would not have been possible for me in Juba. When Deng could not succeed in bringing me into his government given the circumstances at the time, he pledged to support me until I was able to stand on my own feet. That was a pledge he solemnly kept in word and action. He facilitated my accommodation in Juba for a whole year, 2016, until I left South Sudan. He provided this support at great risk of serious reprisal from former governor Paul Malong, who did not want to see anyone stand by my side. I will always treasure Deng’s acts of solidarity and friendship.
Introduction
On February 19, 2014, I received a knock at my gate at around 9:00 p.m. in Aweil, the capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State (NBGS) in South Sudan. I had been suspended from my job two days earlier along with thirteen others. My wife opened the gate, and there stood two armed officers, one from the police service and another from the National Security Agency. Pickup vehicles stood by. Armed police and National Security agents had surrounded my house.
The police officer, Abdhal Karim, told my wife that they were looking for me. My wife came back and told me that, and I went to the gate right away. I greeted them and asked what the matter was. Karim told me that I was under arrest and that I had to come with them to the police station. I asked why and if they had an arrest warrant. Karim declined to tell me the reason for the arrest, and he said the warrant was at the police station.
I found it a little odd that security officers would come at that time without an arrest warrant, but I knew what was at stake. Political opponents had taken our suspension from work two days earlier as a rare opportunity to damage our political and social standing. Knowing that, I did not argue with the police; instead, I politely asked them to allow me a moment to dress, a request they reluctantly granted.
I went to my room, dressed, and came back. I asked if I could drive to the police station, but they told me to board a pickup in which the officer in charge of the operation was. I boarded the vehicle, and the officer asked me for my phone. He switched it off. My dark, bleak, and uncertain ordeal had begun.
As we drove to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters, I tried to make sense of the fast-changing nature of events. I had received a letter of suspension from my job for three months with a promise of reinstatement if I was found innocent by an investigating committee that was looking into accusations of financial misappropriation brought against us, but I was being arrested. I could not make sense of the drama.
While I was beginning to feel that the world was turning its back on me, there was a window of hope. I had a loving and committed wife, Anok Deng Kuom, who was two months pregnant. My arrest forced her to undertake difficult chores including buying fuel in distant Majok Yihnthiou, a town on the Sudan border, and selling it in Aweil at a marginal profit. I would never have allowed her to engage in such activity had I not been locked up by people who found pleasure in others’ pain.
I also had a loving and caring mother and father (now deceased) and siblings who stood firmly behind me and who shared in my pain. My wife and the rest of the family became a great source of strength and comfort as my ordeal began.
Part I Genesis of the Crisis
My suspension on February 17, 2014, and arrest two days later came against the backdrop of a nationwide financial crisis sparked by the declaration of austerity measures in the country following a shutdown of all oil production by the government of South Sudan in 2012.
Following twenty-one years of a protracted war between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) and successive Islamic regimes in Khartoum, the two parties signed a landmark peace accord popularly known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 9, 2005.
The CPA ushered in a new political dispensation for the people of South Sudan and the Abyei area. For the first time in nearly half a century of armed struggle (1955 – 2005) during which nearly three million South Sudanese perished, 1 the people of South Sudan and Abyei were granted the right of self-determination to be exercised through an internationally supervised referendum scheduled for January 9, 2011. The people of the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile were granted the right of popular consultations in the CPA.
Implementing the CPA was not easy. Throughout the pre-interim and interim periods of its implementation, the agreement experienced many twists and turns. Despite various National Congress Party attempts to unravel the peace accord, the agreement was kept on course until the people of South Sudan were able to cast their historic votes through the inte