BOR, South Sudan
Awur Chol Adol, a widow of one of the former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, said her husband died for the sake of the country, therefore she wants government compensation for his death.
Disabled South Sudanese soldiers who were wounded during the liberation war |
Adol is among some widows of
fighters killed during the war calling on the South Sudan government to pay
their late husbands' pension. The widows say they have been forgotten and they
need the government to pay for the service their husbands gave the country.
"Please remember those
who died during the war. You continue pay those who were killed after
independence. But you have since forgotten those who were killed during the war
(of independence), without pension and no salary," Adol told VOA at a SPLA
formation anniversary event in Bor.
This year marks the 40th
anniversary of the formation of the liberation army of former South Sudan
rebels who fought for the independence of the country.
Adol said although there is
much to demand from the government, she is happy her husband’s death was not in
vain, especially with the country’s independence.
Speaking at the commemorations in Bor, Denay Jock Chagor, the governor of Jonglei State, said the war of independence will mean nothing unless the South Sudanese people unite and stop fighting along ethnic lines.
"Building a nation is not
all about what you want, it is all about compromise and love for one another.
It is all about making sure that we can disagree and also agree. If we start
fighting each other as we have done, what is our achievement. All of the people
who have died after our independence, what did they die for," Chagor said.
Kuol Manyang Juuk, a senior
presidential advisor, called on the South Sudanese people to stick to the same
unity portrayed during the war of independence to achieve progress.
"Unity is important. And
peace that the people of the church usually talk about is important. All the
ten commandments all talk about peace. Why do we go to church and come out and
kill people? We must correct ourselves to correct South Sudan. We must keep peace
and stop tribalism. All people who died here would have died in vain if we
don't keep peace," Juuk said.
He said the conflicts that
broke out in 2013 and 2016 cost South Sudan greatly and took the country
backward.
On May 16, 1983, soldiers with
the 105 Battalion of the Sudan Armed Forces mutinied in Malual Chaat military
garrison in Bor over what they called the marginalization of the people of
southern Sudan by the administration in Khartoum.
The mutiny gave birth to the
SPLA under the leadership of late John Garang De Mabior, who eventually signed
peace with Khartoum in 2005 and led to South Sudan’s independence in 2011.
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