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Subscribe to RSSGai Bol Thong, who fled Sudan in 1995, helped raise $45,000 to support his community in South Sudan. Some say the money helped fund a violent raid on a neighboring community which killed thousands. Bol Thong says his community was just defending itself and that the money goes to support many needs.
A Sudanese refugee in Seattle says he led a fundraising effort for a tribe in South Sudan that is accused of massacring hundreds of men, women and children, as the world’s newest nation faces the prospect of a full-blown civil war.
Gai Bol Thong is the director of an organization called Nuer Youth of North America, which he said provides humanitarian support for the Nuer, one of the predominant ethnic/tribal communities of South Sudan, according to a report Friday in the Humanosphere global health blog.
The father of eight moved to the U.S. in 1995 after fleeing Sudan's 1983-2005 civil war, which killed millions, blogger Tom Paulson writes.
The Nuer, who mostly raise cattle for a living, are frequently in conflict over resources with another cattle-raising South Sudanese tribe, the Murle. "This goes back hundreds of years,” Bol Thong said.
The animosity between the two groups deepened last year, when the Murle attacked a Nuer community, killing hundreds of people, including women and children. Last month, the Nuer retaliated in a massacre that the United Nations, even with combat-ready peacekeepers, could do nothing to stop.
The raiders had even broadcast advance notice of their plans, according to a story published Thursday by the New York Times.
“We have decided to invade Murleland and wipe out the entire Murle tribe on the face of the earth,” the Nuer statement said. Aiding that effort was $45,000 that Bol Thong estimated that he helped raise from South Sudanese living abroad -- he said for the warriors' food and medicine.
Read the original story on The New York Times
“In the Nuer culture, you warn them ahead of time so they can remove the women and children,” Bol Thong told Humanosphere. “The Murle made genocide on us. We do not kill old people, women and children.”
News reports tell a different story.
The Times reporte that about 8,000 Nuer fighters attacked the village, leaving hundreds and perhaps thousands dead — including women, elderly and children. The United Nations had sent in 400 peacekeepers, but they were vastly outnumbered and unable to stop the assault.
The retaliation continues. Recently, the Murle struck back, killing 57 members of the Nuer tribe.
Bol Thang told Humanosphere that the conflict is complicated -- and South Sudan, which gained indepence only on July 9, has no police or government structure yet in place to enforce the laws.
He told Humanosphere that he sees no problem with raising money to support his tribe.
“I raised the money to support our community, to provide food and medical supplies,” he said. “Everybody already had guns.”
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Does anyone know if he went to schools fundraising? Last year at my High School some Sudanese men came to my school for a fundraising speech...
Nuke 'em Satanick!
Hahahah
Surely they must have said what they were raising funds for. Why don't you tell us what they told you?
“I raised the money to support our community... Everybody already had guns.” Not sure whether he's saying that by way of isolating himself from the massacre, or feeling sorry that he couldn't raise money for guns So can't put my finger on whether that's hilarious or cause for crying.
@ boom!reason
I did not attend the assembly.
No fliers or anything?
You got me curious.
I am unsure. I was only attending the high school part time so they may have handed out fliers. I'm curious too!
Great, fund raising in the US for his tribe.
And he's got 8 kids - I wonder if they are here collecting welfare?
I wonder if any of your family does.
Nice try, boom!reasonless.
Not a single member of my family, on both sides, that's right, collects welfare.
That's right.
Try harder next time. I'll get you a diaper.
Clever wordplay to state that most of your family members collect welfare.
But I guess that you feel that there's something unique about him that makes you think "welfare" as soon as you see him. Hmm, lets see... well obviously if you didn't know who Romney was, you certainly wouldn't assume that he's on Welfare so you can't claim that it was based solely on number of children.
Right back at ya. You have nothing to go on to suggest that this man's family is a ward of the state. Nothing but your biases, that is.
Sorry, but I don't need your spares.
Amazon sells used diapers at a nice discount - if you think I'm joking go look.
That's right, you don't need my spares.
You clearly don't bother to wear them.
And you should work on reading comprehension. Attempting to put a twist on my words with your 'interpretations' is desperate, at best.
Then we agree. You need them far more than I do.
Of course not: I wear my big-boy pants, so I don't need your diapers. You really should not be wearing diapers at your age anyway.
Rather, you left yourself wide open for it.
Also it is funny how you feel that it is desperate to insinuate that your family is on welfare, since that's exactly how it looks when you say that he's on welfare. You don't even see what you are saying, do you?
Then again, rather than address why you think that he collects welfare, you deflect the issues into something about my character. Classy.
Are UN peacekeepers permitted to discharge their weapons in such a situation? If so, I would have thought that 400 of them could stop 1,000.
I do not understand why you think that 400 could stop 1,000 (much less the 8,000 that the article mentioned).
I wonder if the article was updated, could have sworn I read 1,000. At any rate, I was thinking trained and organized with a clear command structure versus non-professional soldiers. Maybe UN troops don't have that either if forces are combined.
400 could easily stop 1,000 if they had better equipment, morale, organization, and training.
WTH??? We're allowing this man to raise money in the U.S. to commit genocide in his home country?
Because we have to be politically correct here. And with our lib educators and press; one doesn't dare to mention or even think that anyone but white christian males have any malice.
Going on long before the US was founded as a country -- can't blame us for this one.
*SARCASTIC* So the Unites States was formed 100 years ago according to you? READ the bloody article, FFS!
Andrea, READ the bloody article, FFS!
Oh man, that's a clever response!
Clearly I hit a nerve with my earlier post.
Too bad.
You really are quite predictable.
No different than the IRA raising funds from Irish-Americans.
It's such a wonderful culture. We see a variation here in American gangs.
You can take them out of their country but .....
You're a racist pig. WHITE americans formed the first strete gangs you freaking idiot. Any that came after were just following their example.
The best part of you ran down your daddy's leg at conception.
So knight, are you saying that blacks can't even form gangs on their own? It's so burdensome being white, everybody copies us.
Yet another success for America's refugee-resettlement program.
I think he needs to go home and help his tribe.
But, but... where's your compassion? He needs to stay here where it's safe and collect taxpayer funded benefits for himself and his family!
/s
peteMT you just really suck with your comments. I bet you think your sh@t don't stink. Boom!reason I love the way you handle this fool :)
peteMT-
why do you assume that he is on wellfare or collecting some type of benefits? my guess is that he makes a substantial amount of money and that is why he is able to make a fund raising effort and contribute money to his tribe in Sudan. your racism and bigotry makes me sad for the uneducated "pro-American" rednecks. you give good American people a bad name. i am sure this man pays taxes in the US and provides for his family.
Ahhh, the Bert & Ernie generation. More interested in labeling people as racists, rednecks, bigots or whatever rather than taking a hard look at outcomes.
This man gave money to people that wage violence upon one another. That's the story.
And that's the ignorance and arrogance of the Bert & Ernie generation.
Where does it say he is on welfare???? Those that posit that theory are as bad as the beloved Ronnie Reagan and his "welfare queen" which was proved to be non-existent as was his brain. Goddamn ignorant racists...
There's no racism in America anymore right? After all we've elected an African American President. And anyone can see from the posts that even if they disagree with the Presidents policy's they still respect him as a person and respect the Office of the President.
Just that type doing what they have always done. Nothing really strange here.
At least if they kill each other there, they won't end up on welfare in the US then kill each other here in gang shoot outs where we have to fit the bill to bury the bas$%(ds!!!
Darrel from Florida please shut up. I am constantly having to defend our state all the time and here you go sounding like the idiot they say we are. People do that every where. Like the Hell's Angle's and other white gangs that formed here in America by white Americans!!!! So please shut up!!!!
I bet you can't defend the shape of the state!
Yes. Let's all congratulate ourselves on how much better we are then these poor heathens. Based on all the comments on these posts if we had machetes we would all be so much more "civilized" as we chop eachother up!
ya no doubt....lol
ANIMALS!!!!!!!
Very much like zionists raising money from Americans and the federal government of the USA to fund efforts by the terrorist IDF to assert zionist hegemony in the Middle EAst.
If the Palestinians would acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a nation and stop killing civilians, then there wouldn't be a problem. Only then will the palestinians have the moral high ground. Until that happens, they will remain a stateless people. Their future has always been in their own hands. By giving into violance, they are playing a game they can never win.
But thanks for posting. Always good to know where the nazi's are.
"in a massacre that the United Nations, even with combat-ready peacekeepers, could do nothing to stop."
The UN couldn't stop a jay-walker with a battalion of armed men. UN, "combat ready troops," is a joke!
I'm sorry your black brothers can't live together w/o raping & killing each other but why do I care???
...I spent two years in Africa in the '70s... One can try to blame the colonial period or the Cold War... but however you slice it... large parts of Africa are centuries behind... Slavery still exists in some countries (including parts of the Sudan... Don't believe it? Google it...)
...Tribal languages don't have anything expressing a concept like, "Leader of the loyal opposition..." The closest that you can come is "Chief Enemy..." or "corpse" depending on the tense...
...Zimbabwe's marxist government took over a healthy economy and destroyed it... driving over a million of its own people out... either from fear or to avoid starving... Absolutely no hope while Mugabe is alive...
...There are some countries where all is not darkness... Botswana is poor but has an extremely humane and honest police force. Kenya backslides sometimes... but on balance is trying to move forward... There are some others... but on balance tribal hatreds, slavery, and superstition are going to provoke slaughters for at least the next half-century... Usually one of the first casualties... the schools... teachers killed and buildings burned.
...
21'st century weapons, barbarian warrior code equals larger numbers of victims, ongoing violence. No contemplation of peaceful solutions. A very sad, predictable story. 50 years? I think it will be considerably longer than that. Man does not think he did anything wrong. Still, early warning is much more enlightened than the current Holy Islamist Jihadists who train their children to walk among unsuspecting strangers and blow everyone up, then are celebrated at home. Self serving cult of death is probably the greatest evil we will see in our lifetime.
Back in the late 1980s I worked with a guy, an Americans of Irish descent, who raised and sent money to the IRA, knowing it would be used to kill. I don't see anything different between him and this Gai Bol Thong guy.
I can see one huge difference by looking at the guy.
Why are you complaining about just 1 situation where donations are being used to kill people? The USA sends billions of dollars, both personal/private, religious organizations and governmental aid to other countries to keep people from starving during tough environmental times such as food and medicine for diseases. Years later these people in turn commit crimes against humanity that the civilized world abhor. Anyone think that all those Taliban soldiers, or FARC soldiers, or drug gangs in Mexico, as children, didn't get fed by 'save the children' or UNICEF or all the other groups, that are now alive to bite the hand that fed them? Think all the money goes to actual aide? Someone gets a cut off the top first. Aide starts at home, the USA, Create jobs so our citizens can work first.
Anyone think that the US didn't arm the Taliban in the past?
Anyone think that the US didn't arm the Mexican drug gangs?
Just adding to your comment; not arguing with you.
Of course, the "combat ready troops" the UN sent in were only 800 men -- against about 8000 tribesmen who were just as well armed and trained as the UN troops (which still doesn't say much). The UN troops wisely declined to stand between the two warring factions for fear of being anihilated, themselves. The UN is useless.
complex situation that most of you have not tried to understand - most comments are silly or even stupid. good article at http// paanluelwel2011.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/seattle-south-sudanese-man-who-raised-money-for-south-sudan-tribal-war-accused-of-massacre/
complex situation - most of the comments are silly or outright stupid. good article at paanluelwel2011.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/seattle-south-sudanese-man-who-raised-money-for-south-sudan-tribal-war-accused-of-massacre/
Just another example of the deep, rich texture of Mother Africa.
You don't see many people wanting to move back, do you?
Tell that to Liberia.