Clash of Tyranny and Justice

By Garang Kuot Kuot

Clash of Justice and Tyranny is a detailed account of an unparalleled miscarriage of justice that involved an arbitrary arrest and the lengthy incarceration of eighteen people in the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in South Sudan. The circumstances and details of what transpired as narrated in this book are rare; it is hard to believe that something this heinous could be inflicted on innocent individuals.

Readers may find it incredulous how brutality and tyranny could be so callously deployed to destroy personalities on false charges. The book is about eighteen government officials who ended up being framed for embezzlement and arrested by the South Sudan strongman General Paul Malong Awan, who was at the time the governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.

Malong was well known for his brutality and absolute disregard for the rule of law. He led Northern Bahr el Ghazal State with an iron fist, turning it into a police state. Fourteen of the eighteen officials were thrown into prison on his orders and locked up in a tiny disciplinary room of death. It was by the grace of God that they survived the harsh conditions of the infamous room 11 that had already claimed the lives of many inmates. All eighteen were denied bail, and the government rejected their request to transfer the case to court. The government effectively became the judge and plaintiff at the same time.

The ironic aspect of the case was that thirteen of the eighteen officials had provided loan to the government, which was in dire financial straits. The government defaulted on the loans and had the men arrested. It was a case of the guilty punishing the innocent in an unprecedented display of abuse of power.

The conclusion of the case was unbelievably anomalous; detainees were told to go without a proper explanation for their confinement in prison. The eighteen were not publicly cleared or apologized to for the crimes committed against them. They were not compensated for the serious damages they incurred in terms of physical pain, emotional torture, and material loss. The whole case ended as it had begun—surprisingly abnormally.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669871002

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Copyright © 2023 by Garang Kuot Kuot.

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.

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Rev. date: 03/23/2023

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1 Genesis 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 2 Incarceration 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 3 Life 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 internationally supervised referendum; the people of South Sudan voted for succession at an amazing rate of 99 percent.²

However, the declaration of South Sudan independence on July 9, 2011 came with problems. Despite its being the first to recognize the independence of South Sudan on declaration day, the government of Sudan began confiscating South Sudan crude oil accusing the latter of failing to pay oil transit fees. The government of South Sudan was and still is using Sudanese pipelines to transport its crude oil to the international market via Port Sudan. In addition to the confiscation of South Sudan crude oil, the National Congress Party government in Khartoum was accused of stealing a portion of crude oil from South Sudan and directing it to refineries in al-Obeid in North Kordofan and al-Gailey in north Khartoum.³

This seizure of South Sudan crude prompted South Sudan to shut down oil production. Oil revenues had accounted for nearly 98 percent of the total national budget for South Sudan.³ The shutdown was a bold step, and it received overwhelming support across the country.

With oil revenues out of the budget, alternative sources of income were required to avoid a financial crisis. One potential source of income was taxes, fees, levies, and VAT among others. Unfortunately, the taxation system in South Sudan was exceedingly underdeveloped; that meant the national and state governments could not sustainably rely on taxes to meet their financial obligations.

The impact of the oil shutdown on a national budget was quick and serious. To contain the deteriorating economic situation, the national government decided to enforce austerity measures in which only chapter 1