Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KHARTOUM1394
2006-06-12 15:22:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

JUBA,S CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP ON PROBLEMS FACING THE

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PINS PINR EAGR SU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO5900
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1394/01 1631522
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 121522Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3190
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001394 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS PINR EAGR SU
SUBJECT: JUBA,S CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP ON PROBLEMS FACING THE
SOUTH

Classified By: CG Juba R. Whitehead, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001394

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS PINR EAGR SU
SUBJECT: JUBA,S CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP ON PROBLEMS FACING THE
SOUTH

Classified By: CG Juba R. Whitehead, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Juba, Paolino
Lukudu Loro, discussed with CG on June 3 some of the major
challenges facing the Equatoria region. Loro expressed his
relief that the peace was holding but raised the ethnic
hegemony of the Dinka, the situation in Yei, land tenure, and
corruption as problems that must be resolved. End summary.

--------------
The Good News, and the Not So Good
--------------


2. (C) Loro said that he was relieved that peace still
prevailed in Southern Sudan nearly a year and a half after
the signing of the CPA. He said that the population
continued to respect the SPLM/SPLA for its role in liberating
the South from northern domination and bringing peace for the
first time in two decades. He added, however, that in Juba
and throughout Equatoria, the southernmost region of Southern
Sudan, there was increasing criticism of the poor performance
of the GoSS, especially in the delivery of basic services to
the population. There was a growing perception that the
peace dividend had mostly gone to official driving new cars
and living on expense accounts.

--------------
Dinka Hegemony
--------------


3. (C) Loro said that the Dinka displaced from the North
during the war and still remaining in the South posed a
growing problem. Many Dinka were reluctant to leave the lush
land of Equatoria for their harsher, more arid areas of
origin. The oversized Dinka herds caused great damage to the
fields of the local farmers; complaints from the Zande and
Kakwa people often drew the Dinka response that the
non-Nilotic tribes were not true Sudanese and should return
to the Uganda and Congo, where they rightly belonged. Loro
said that he feared that the growing tensions would one day
erupt in an organized attack on the Dinka by the Kakwa and
Zande population.


4. (C) Loro continued that there was a serious problem in
Mvolo, a town located between Maridi and Rumbek, with Dinka

Agar and aligned SPLA forces attacking and looting Jur
villages. At least a dozen people were believed to have
died. The root of the problem, he explained, was again
cattle. The Dinka Agar had driven their herds onto
traditional Jur farmlands, and when they protested, the
predominantly Dinka SPLA had taken the Dinka Agar,s side.
Loro said the only permanent solution would be to move the
Dinka back to their places of origin and thin the cattle
herds to numbers that the land could sustain. He said that
he did not know if GoSS President Salva Kiir would be willing
or able to broker this outcome.

--------------
The Example of Yei
--------------


5. (C) Loro cited Yei as an example of the growing animosity
between the local population and their erstwhile SPLA
liberators. Violence against the local citizenry had come to
head a week earlier when a SPLA soldier shot to death the
Kakwa county health commissioner for no evident reason.
Unlike other cases that had been swept under the rug, this
time the SPLA arrested and charged the killer. Nonetheless,
over 3,000 residents of Yei congregated to protest the
shooting. Loro said that the SPLA had begun moving the
10,000 SPLA troops in Yei to a new staging area five miles
east of Lainya, or about forty miles east of Yei on the Juba
road. Already there were reports of problems over access of
boreholes and housing.

--------------
Corruption and Land
--------------


6. (C) Loro said that corruption was increasing, which he
described as inevitable. Senior SPLM officials had the
attitude that since they had suffered in the bush for years
fighting for freedom, and had won, it was now their turn to
enjoy themselves. Loro said that land and housing were
palpable manifestations of this mentality. With housing at a
premium and land prices skyrocketing around Juba, there were
multiple claims and counter claims about property ownership,
with the powerful and well connected usually winning the
struggle.

--------------

KHARTOUM 00001394 002 OF 002


Limited Access
--------------


7. (C) Loro said that the people of the South held the
United States in great esteem for America,s support of the
southern cause, and for its generous assistance to the South.
For this reason, the U.S. had a unique role to play in
influencing the GoSS to resolve its problems peacefully and
to establish responsible governance that benefited all, not
just SPLM elites. Loro said that there was a role for the
church as well. He was doing his best to influence events in
the proper direction, Loro said, but he had limited access to
the most senior circles of the GoSS other than on a protocol
level.


8. (C) Following a visit to Lainya, where the county
commissioner echoed Loro,s report of growing tensions
between the local population and SPLA troops over access to
water points, we have arranged through an ongoing Lainya
water/sanitation program to drill a new borehole near the
barracks area to defuse the situation. Loro was probably
correct in his assessment of his limited ability to influence
the GoSS. H was reportedly very close to the late John
Garang, a Protestant, but has never had particularly strong
ties to Kiir, a practicing Roman Catholic.
HUME