South Sudan’s National Parliament voted Monday to recommend the president remove Lakes State caretaker military governor Matur Chut Dhuol.
Dhuol was appointed to his position January 2013 by President Salva Kiir after the president ousted elected governor Governor Chol Tonj Mayay.
The parliament recommended that Dhuol be removed from office followed by a reconciliation process.
The recommendation was unanimous and came after lengthy deliberations in which lawmakers voiced support for Dhuol’s ouster.
The lawmakers said police, SPLA, and national security should stay on the ground to maintain the process and to allow disarmament.
‘Lost trust’
There have been over 300 deaths, including women, in the last four months in Lakes, National Defense Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk told parliament.
A parliamentary committee headed by Daniel Dhieu Maluet said that in a six week investigation it found numerous instances of rape, competing
claims over land and cattle camps, and proliferation of arms among untrained youth.
In particular, in August there was a wave of violence following the unsolved murder of paramount chief Apareer Chut Dhuol.
The committee said that the state’s population had lost trust in the leadership of caretaker governor Dhuol.
Ministers summoned
Parliament summoned the national ministers of security, defense, and interior to explain why they failed to stop the killings in Lakes.
The ministers recommended the removal of the governor as a first step to arresting the situation.
Minister of National Security Obuto Mamur Mete said that perpetrators of crimes were not being brought to justice and that the national government should take charge of the situation.
“We behave as if we are visitors in our own country,” he complained. “If [caretaker governor] Matur is a criminal, he has to be brought to justice whether he is the son of a devil or a king. Why do you treat people on kid gloves and other people on iron gloves?”
Mamur said that it was not enough to disarm perpetrators but to investigate and bring them to book. He further called for an independent government investigation to uncover the source of weapons being moved to civilian militia.
Defense minister Kuol said that he did not intervene because he acts upon presidential orders.
Deputy Minister of Interior Augustine Jadalla said that 80% of the population in Lake State is well armed with automatic weapons and that law enforcement agencies on the ground were not effective.
Jadalla said that from 2012-2014 police registered 183 murder cases, but none resulted in convictions punished by death sentence.
State of emergency
Tulio Odongi Oyahu, SPLM chief caucus in the national parliament, also supported the removal of the caretaker governor, but he said that it should be done in accordance with article 101 of the national constitution which gives the president power to remove governors.
Odongi urged the parliament to send a notification letter to President Salva Kiir who is out of the country at a summit in Addis Ababa.
Onyoti Adigo, leader of the minority SPLM-DC party, called for a state of emergency to be declared in Lakes.
“We have to recommend that there is a need for state of emergency in Lakes State because people are now dying,” he said. “We need the army to be there to solve their problem.”
Related: Lawlessness in Lakes State after chief’s murder
Radio Tamazuj Photo: The meeting of the National Parliament to recommend the removal of Lakes caretaker governor Dhuol
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