DINKA CAUCUS OF DEMOCRATIC FORUM CONDEMN BONA MALWAL

Press Release

Dinka Caucus of Mainstream Democratic Forum in U.S.A.

June 21, 2007

The Dinka members of South Sudan Democratic Forum would like to make their position known to the Sudanese, particularly Southerners, concerning the split within our party. The split of our party between the Diaspora based Mainstream Democratic Forum and Elia-Bona Faction is something that we predicted last year. We knew that such a thing was being cooked by Bona Malwal, who doesn’t like the Diaspora leadership because of criticism of Gogrial’s government in Juba.

The prominent Dinka members of the Diaspora Forum joined other members from various ethnic groups last year to write a letter to former chairman of the party, Dr. Martin Elia, and warned him about the dangers of being so dependent on Bona Malwal Madut. We informed the former chairman that the mere presence of Bona Malwal in the party might cost us votes in the election because Southerners do not want to hear his name. We told him that Southerners who had negative opinions about him could not be blamed because they are aware of his tainted records which are widely known that one does not need to bring a witness to court to testify against him.  Moreover, our people who heard the names of Southerners being behind the conspiracy for the murder of William Deng Nhial in the 1960s, as late Dr. Garang revealed the secret to all South Sudanese in 2001, can run away from a party where Bona Malwal is a member. That was the reason why Bona told some members of our party members at Heathrow Airport in 2005 that he was going to Sudan to attend Garang’s funeral “to laugh at his dead body”. We warned Martin Elia that during election, this statement could be used by other parties against the Democratic Forum in the South.

When Bona Malwal was the editor and publisher of Democratic Gazette in London in the 1990s, he vilified the Nuer and Equatorian ethnic groups by referring to them as “subhuman species”. In one of the issues of the Democratic Gazette, he referred to Nuer as “shameless marauders and Nyagats (Looters)”. He called Riek Machar back then as “a leader of a foolish tribe”. In his writings, Bona was so racist and tribalistic that the SPLM/A—Mainstream under late Dr. Garang was in a moral dilemma to be associated with him since Garang’s faction had prominent Nuer commanders who might have been offended by Bona’s tribal Gazzette.

Bona was also nominated in 2004 as a chief of twic Mayardit clan of Dinka. He was charged with “a duty of protecting not only the interest of Twic but the Dinka tribe in general”. CDR Salva Kiir Mayardit was in attendance when Bona Malwal was crowned as chief of Twic. Bona swore to the elders of Twic that he would always protect the paramount interest of the clan in the state level. He fulfilled his promise when he met only Dinka Bhar el Ghazal in London to talk about the affairs of the South following the tragic death of Dr. Garang.

During the administration of the High Executive Council of South Sudan in 1970s, Bona was one of the Dinka politicians who promoted the ideology that “Dinkas are born to rule”. He was instrumental in any machination against the Nuer and Equatorians back then. His writings in the Democratic Gazette in the 1990s confirmed his feelings towards other tribes in the South. It is not a secret that Bona does not like anybody other than a Dinka to lead the South. He once wrote in his Democratic Gazette that “Riek Machar’s chance of leading the South is slim because he is from a tribe that does not have leadership potential”. However, most Southerners know prominent Nuer leaders like Peter Gatkuoth Gwal, Gai Tut and Philip Pedak who were not only capable leaders but also superior to Bona in terms of leadership capacity. Yet, Bona attempted to erase the history of South Sudan which attests that Joseph Lagu and James Tombura were former presidents of the South whose administrations equalized all the tribes in the South.

We the Dinka members of the Democratic Forum support the new leadership of the Mainstream Democratic Forum because the people of South Sudan want to test young generations as leaders rather than old folks like Bona who are in their late seventies. Majority of South Sudanese are young people who are having difficulty to be led by the same old individuals who introduced tribalism in the 1970s.

We therefore give our support to Dr. Samuel Koang Gatluak as the leader of the Mainstream Democratic Forum. We condemn, in no uncertain terms, Bona Malwal and his errand boy, Martin Elia, for attempting to convert Democratic Forum into a private property to serve the interest of Twic clan rather than national interest. As members of the Mainstream Forum for change, we call on the new leadership of the party to start political dialogue with National Congress Party (NCP) to resolve the question of Southern problem.

For Contact

Peter Arok Yak

Chairman of Dinka Caucus of Mainstream Democratic Forum in U.S.A.

Email: arok_yak@hotmail.com