Op-Ed| Was the gunfight at Gen. Koor’s house a thwarted assassination attempt?

BY KOKA LO’LADO

Juba residents were jostled back into the true indeterminate and volatile nature of South Sudan on Thursday evening when heavy gunfire erupted in the Thongpiny suburb which is a preferred residential area for top dogs in government, the rich, the diplomatic corps, UN and NGO community among others. The unfortunate fiasco unfolded slightly after 7 p.m., lasted close to an hour, and played out in and around the house of former National Security Service’s (NSS) Internal Security Bureau (ISB) Director General Gen. Akol Koor (Lion) Kuc.

Earlier in the day prior to the firefight, President Salva Kiir ordered the Chief of Military Intelligence (MI) Stephen Marshall (as the leader of the operation), Chief of Operations Paul Nang Majok, Tiger Division Commander Gum Makuac and Gen. Charles Ciec Mayor of the ISB to arrest and detain Gen. Koor at the Military Intelligence Detention Facility. Interestingly, SSPDF Chief of Defense Forces Gen. Santino Deng Wol was kept in the dark due to being partial to and his perceived ties to Koor. In the late afternoon, three of the Generals, Nang, Makuac, and Ciec went to Gen. Koor’s home in Thongpiny to inform him that he was effectively being arrested and would be taken and held at the notorious Military Intelligence Detention Facility. Conspicuously, Gen. Marshall of Military Intelligence did not go to Koor’s house, perhaps due to the bad blood between the two in the past which saw Marshall fired from the Military Intelligence docket in the past before bouncing back.

The petrifying, but not surprising news, hit Koor very hard, he saw red and went wild shouting and demanding why he was being arrested and if there was a warrant. Koor’s terrified reaction is expected as he has incarcerated and ordered the disappearance and summary extrajudicial killing of hundreds if not thousands of people during his close to 14-year reign at the helm of the ISB. At the height of his ‘illustrious’ career, he flippantly ordered murders and unperturbedly witnessed his victims starving, withering away, and eventually painfully dying, with a cold smug. Now it was his turn and he was truly horrified of certain death in detention, after all, he knew the methods well.

In the ensuing fiasco, the three Generals were rattled but remained composed as Koor’s bodyguards formed a skirmish perimeter effectively holding them captive. One of the Koor’s people in the house then called for backup. The now beleaguered Koor, after cooling down, ordered his men to let the three Generals go. Shortly after they left, Koor’s backup arrived in two pickups. Then a combined team of heavily armed Tiger and MI units also arrived and laid siege to the house. This is when the exchange of fire initially commenced outside of Koor’s house before being directed at the house by the Tiger and MI units. The orders to engage and shoot at Koor’s house could only have been given by President Kiir who ordered his arrest by all means necessary. Koor had suddenly become expendable.

As the firefight intensified, Gen. Koor took refuge in a bunker in his expansive storied house otherwise he would have been killed because the attacking force under the command of Gen. Marshall of MI was using General Purpose Machine Guns like the Russian-made 12. 7 DShK 1938 and 14.5 KPV among others were mounted on Toyota LandCruiser pickups and Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs). Scores were killed in Koor’s house and he would have eventually been apprehended or killed had it not been for the intervention of CDF Gen. Wol who rushed to the scene and ordered the attacking soldiers to immediately ceasefire. Koor got another lease of life.

Unfortunately, scores died in the debacle, we have only had insincere condolence messages from government officials and spokespeople who have been economical with the truth regarding the true number of casualties. The unruly soldiers even resorted to looting shops in the neighborhood after they were told to cease fire. Why would Kiir and his commanders who superintended over war for years decide to use lethal force, heavy weaponry, in a densely populated suburb at a time when people are going about their business and or returning home? Well, it is not a first as they attacked Riek Machar’s house with tanks and other big guns in 2013 without regard for innocent people in the neighborhood. Killing innocent South Sudanese is a spot for this lot!  Who will compensate the dead and for property damage?

Koor could have simply been summoned to the SSPDF Headquarters by the Chief of Defense Forces and he would have complied per military order since he is still a serving officer who was removed from the position of Director General of the ISB but not retired from the army. Alternatively, the president should have called him to his office and given orders to apprehend him there. It is inexplicable, imprudent, and shameful that they tried to forcefully arrest and or kill Koor in a reckless fashion that led to the death of innocent people, endangered many more,e and left millions traumatized.

Also, eliminating real and perceived enemies within its ranks has been a hallmark of SPLM/A leaders since the days of the liberation struggle and they killed some of their best minds who were thought to be threats or demanded an iota of democratic practice.

“An unfortunate incident occurred at the residence of General Akol Koor. An attempt by military personnel to forcibly arrest him without a warrant led to a confrontation with close protection and family members who resisted the action. The situation was swiftly de-escalated following the intervention of the Chief of Staff, restoring calm to the area,” A statement released by the Koor family after the fighting read in part. “Regrettably, the incident resulted in the loss of one family member, 2 sustained injuries, 3 soldiers also sadly passed on, while others sustained injuries. The family is currently grieving this loss and attending to the injured. General Akol Koor is safe. Further details will be provided as investigations continue.”

The statement added: “The family calls for calmness, and privacy during this difficult time and urges for peaceful resolution in all matters moving forward. For reliable media inquiries, please contact authentic people and close people.”

Rumors of Gen. Koor’s impending firing made rounds in Juba and across the country for over two years before it actually happened. The foundation of the gossip was that he had become so powerful and had allegedly developed an appetite for the top office in the land-Kiir’s seat. Indeed, he had built the ISB to answer to and the operatives were loyal to him. The ISB was well facilitated, armed, and ran various lucrative businesses and its personnel were well remunerated and paid on time. Such a well-oiled machine was the envy of the other security outfits in the country and naturally viewed with suspicion in case its leader decided to make a move. Congruently, the more he became powerful, the more money, power, and enemies he amassed.  Still, Kiir kept Koor. However, lately, things seem to have come to a head with several machinations and competing players repositioning themselves. In October, Kiir finally fired Gen. Koor and transferred Gen. Lual Wek of Tiger Division (Presidential Guards), two senior officers perceived to be the most powerful in the country at the time.

A lot of people across the country, especially those who lost loved ones to Koor’s ISB, celebrated his fall in October and many said “What goes around, comes around” and that he was about to face the music. It was an accurate forecast.  The quiet but lethal man made all, including senior politicians and his colleagues live in dread of him. No one knew his next victim or when you would be whisked away in the dead of the night and all lived in silent fear.

Always in the shadows and seldom seen in public, Koor made an audacious appearance at the National Legislature (parliament) on 3 July escorted by a coterie of heavily armed menacing bodyguards who ring-fenced him. The ISB boss was in parliament to, without uttering a word, whip lawmakers in line to pass the draconian National Security Service Bill that allows for the arrest of any citizen without a warrant. The naive parliamentarians passed the law and the SPLM Party broke into song and dance without even slightly considering the law’s future ramifications. Indeed, its main proponent, Gen. Koor, is now a victim of the very law and he was haranguing the officers sent to arrest him for a cause and warrant of arrest.  This is Karma as in Hinduism and Buddhism; the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.

The passage of the draconian law and what has now happened to Koor should be a lesson to all in power and those who will rise to power in the future, that laws, decrees, orders directives, ordinances, etc. should be made for the greater good of the people, nation, and posterity and not for selfish interests as they are bound to be used against you, its champion, in future.  

Koor presided over a very notorious ISB ostensibly to protect Kiir in power and many believed, aptly so, that all his criminal activities like extrajudicial killings, disappearing of people, state-sanctioned rape, illegal arrests, and imprisonments, etc. were blessed by the president. Naturally, such a relationship is symbiotic and both parties have dirt on each other. In such cases, a fallout is often acrimonious and can lead to death. Kiir, who has fallen out with many close cronies after using them, has proved over time that he has no qualms in dealing with them decisively. An example is former CDF, now rebel leader, Paul Malong, with whom they were once inseparable.  

On Friday, several senior government officials and the SSPDF spokesperson parroted that Gen. Koor had been relocated to one of his many houses in Juba located in the Jebel suburb because the Thongpiny neighborhood has many foreign missions and that the heavy deployment of security forces around Koor was creating fear. The question begs; why would there be heavy overt deployment around Koor’s house, encompassing entire blocks, especially after he has been sacked? Is he a flight risk or does he intend to expose his erstwhile boss-the president? He could easily be contained without a heavy military presence.

The adage “there is no honor among thieves” has been proven true in South Sudan as illuminated by the fallout between Kiir and Koor who were “thick as thieves” and now estranged. The former ISB top honcho has so much information and implemented countless unlawful orders from Kiir to protect the latter and the status quo. He can expose and blackmail Kiir. Indeed, Malong threatened to expose Kiir if the latter and his minions kept talking negatively about him. The president learned from that?

Gen. Koor’s name, which means Lion in Dinka, is curved in stone in the Republic of South Sudan’s nascent history. He was one of the glues that held the edifice together. Whether there will be fissures in the status quo’s structure after his unceremonious ejection from office will soon become apparent.

If Koor was an accomplished spy chief, he should have stowed away information and evidence to be used to keep him alive or in the event of his death, to be used to expose and bring people he worked with to justice for the heinous crimes they committed together. Better still, he can make good by releasing such evidence posthumously, if only to bring closure to the families of the people who killed and disappeared under his watch.  

Ultimately, this saga has just commenced and is far from over, and Koor is incontestably unsafe in Kiir’s current South Sudan. We cautiously watch!

The writer is a journalist and can be reached via kokalolado@gmail.com

The views expressed in ‘opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made is the author’s responsibility, not Radio Tamazuj’s.

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