A rigorous survey by the U.N.'s Office of the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, released earlier this year, estimated that last year in just one area of Unity State -- 24 communities, including Leer -- 7,165 persons were killed in violence and another 829 drowned while fleeing. Add to those nearly 8,000 deaths another 1,243 people "lost" -- generally thought to have been killed but without confirmation -- while fleeing and 890 persons who were abducted, and you have a toll of suffering that exceeds 10,000.
To put the figures in perspective, those 8,000 dead in and around Leer are more than double the number of civilians -- men, women, children -- killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2015, and more than double the number of all civilians killed in the conflict in Yemen last year. Even a low-end estimate -- 50,000 South Sudanese civilian deaths in roughly two years of civil war from December 2013 through December 2015 -- exceeds the numbers of civilians estimated killed in Syria over the same span. Some experts say the number of South Sudanese dead is closer to 300,000.
Killing Fields: Now
Leer's "killing field" is an expanse of sun-desiccated dirt covered in a carpet of crunchy golden leaves and dried grasses. Even the weeds have been scorched and strangled by the sun, though the area is also dotted with sturdy neem trees casting welcome shade. From the branches above me, bird calls ring out, filling the air with chaotic, incongruous melodies.
Riek Machar was born and bred in Leer. This very spot was his family compound. The big trees once cast shade on tukuls and fences. It was a garden spot. People used to picnic here. But that was a long, long time ago.
Today, a stripped and battered white four-wheel-drive SUV sits in the field. Not so far away, without tires, seats, or a windshield is one of those three-wheeled vehicles known around the world as a Lambretta or a tuck-tuck. And then there's the clothes. I find a desert camouflage shirt, its pattern typically called "chocolate chip." A short way off, there's a rumpled pair of gray pants, beyond it a soiled blue tee-shirt sporting the words "Bird Game" and graphics resembling those of the video game "Angry Birds."
And then there's a spinal column.
A human one.
And a pelvis. And a rib cage. A femur and another piece of a spinal column. To my left, a gleaming white skull. I turn slightly and glimpse another one. A few paces on and there's another. And then another.
Human remains are scattered across this area.
A skull lies in the 'killing field' in Leer, South Sudan. This area at the edge of town is littered with unburied human remains.
(Image by Nick Turse / TomDispatch) Details DMCA
A skull lies in the "killing field" in Leer, South Sudan. This area at the edge of town is littered with unburied human remains.
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Leer is, in fact, littered with bones. I see them everywhere. Most of the time, they're the sun-bleached skeletal remains of animals. A few times I stop to scrutinize an orphaned bone lying amid the wreckage. But I'm no expert, so I chalk up those I can't identify to cattle or goats. But here, in this killing field, there's no question. The skulls, undoubtedly picked clean by vultures and hyenas, tell the story. Or rather, these white orbs, staring blankly in the midday glare, tell part of it.
There's a folk tale from South Sudan's Murle tribe about a young man, tending cattle in a pasture, who comes across a strikingly handsome skull. "Oh my god, but why are you killing such beautiful people?" he asks. The next day he asks again and this time the skull responds. "Oh my dear," it says, "I died because of lies!" Frightened, he returns to his village and later tells the chief and his soldiers about what happened. None of them believes him. He implores them to witness it firsthand. If you're lying, the chief asks, what shall we do with you? And the young man promptly replies, "You have to kill me."
He then leads the soldiers to the skull and poses his question. This time, the skull stays silent. For his lies, the soldiers insist, they must kill him and they do just that. As they are about to return to the village, a voice calls out, "This is what I told you, young man, and now you have also died as I died." The soldiers agree not to tell the king about the exchange. Returning to the village, they say only that the man had lied and so they killed him as ordered.
In South Sudan, soldiers murder and they get away with it, while skulls tell truths that the living are afraid to utter.
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