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A member of parliament, Jal Thich was killed in Gudele Block 5 at around 10 a.m. on the
morning of 16 December with two of his relatives. A witness described:
When the war broke out John (Jal Thich) told us to just lie on the floor. We
were hoping it was just between soldiers. But then they came in three
pickups … (John) was asked to get into the car and his two nephews. They did
not get far before serious shooting began again (in the neighborhood). They
stopped the car and John and the others were taken out and shot. … John was
shot in the forehead, and the two nephews: one in neck and one in chest.
Also on December 16, in a Juba hotel, a secretary of Riek, Lam Chol Tishore, was shot and
killed by soldiers, together with his brother. 91 That day, in Mia Saba, the house of Ruai Kuol,
a state representative from Bentiu, was also attacked, although Kuol fled about an hour
before the attack after hearing about the attacks on Nuer. Dinka police and soldiers forced
their way into Kuol’s compound and said they would shoot at the house unless all the men
came out. The men were then made to squat in a line. “My uncle stood up and ran and fell
into a hole (shallow ditch), and a soldier came up and shot him in the face. We buried him
the next day,” a relative said. Another young student relative of Kuol was shot and injured
in the attack. “All of us were beaten with guns,” he said. 92
Some less prominent Nuer members of security forces were also targeted during the crisis.
A Nuer policeman, Chuol Isaac, was killed close to his home in the morning of December 17
in the Tomping neighborhood by a group of Dinka police and soldiers who had visited the
house twice before specifically looking for Isaac. More than a month after the crisis, a
friend told Human Rights Watch that he had been unable to return to the house as Dinka
police were still occupying it after killing Isaac.
According to several sources, a senior police official, Brigadier General John Jul Boddoud
survived a December 19 attack on his office by 15 Dinka police. 93 A senior Nuer soldier who
had taken a year out of the army to attend university told Human Rights Watch he was
attacked in his home in the Tomping neighborhood early in the morning on December 18
91 Human Rights Watch interview with civil servant, name withheld, January 8, 2014. These killings are well-known among the
Nuer community.
92 Human Rights Watch interviews, names withheld, December 2013 and January, 2014.
93 Human Rights Watch interview, name withheld, Juba, March 25, 2014.
41 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | AUGUST 2014