Master Liep Gony Tribute

MEN are slaughtered in front of their children, babies are ripped from their mothers' arms and those who dodge the violence walk for days seeking sanctuary, shelter and ultimately peace.

This is just another day in the life of a tribal African trying to escape the clutches of a never-ending civil war.

Liep Gony, 19, was part of such a shocking history but turned his back on it to start a new, safe life in Noble Park.

But Liep will not share the Australian dream like so many other eager immigrants.

The TAFE student died in the Alfred hospital yesterday after he was bashed violently with either a piece of wood or steel and left for dead on Wednesday night.

Homicide squad detectives are investigating the vicious assault, which began at Noble Park railway station after 9pm and ended with Liep lying unconscious 200m away on Mons Parade.

His cousins told the Herald Sun on Thursday two youths, one a South African, had tried to pick a fight earlier in the night at a nearby skate park. Liep and the two youths had allegedly been in an altercation a week earlier.

The area has become an escalating hotspot for youth violence and ethnic tensions, with African, Asian and Polynesian strongholds based along the southeast Melbourne train line.

Yesterday, the Herald Sun revealed a sickening history of recent violence involving out-of-control youths. Incidents include a bloodied Sudanese man repeatedly biting the face of a policewoman trying to help him and, on a separate patrol, a policeman's nose being broken by a rock at Noble Park railway station.

Superintendent Gavin Barry said police were well aware of African immigrants who might disregard authority and said Victoria Police had been pro-active with the establishment of a multicultural policing unit at Dandenong and sending two members to Sudan in March.

The homicide squad's Det-Sen-Sgt Jeff Maher described Liep's attack as very brutal and urged anyone with information to come forward.

"There's a lot of pieces to the jigsaw puzzle," Det-Sen-Sgt Maher said.

He said an information caravan would operate in Noble Park during the weekend and security footage from the station was being analysed.

Later yesterday, more than 50 family members gathered at Liep's Noble Park home as his mother, Martha Ojulo, grieved openly and clutched her heart as her children and Liep's girlfriend, Najwa, closed around her.

"He started walking early when he was eight months old," she said through translator, Banak Joshua.

"He was a good footballer.

"The first person in the morning to greet me was Liep. He was a genius and clever."

She said she had confronted Liep about the fight a week ago but he would not talk about it.

Ms Ojulo recalled going to pick up her younger son and Liep from the station on the night, but Liep was not there.

Later that night she received a call from a friend to say he'd been found injured.

"I saw my son being taken by ambulance, so my first reaction: 'what happened?'

"There was too much bleeding everywhere," she said, motioning her hands towards the ground.

"The doctor said too much injury to the head."

Mr Joshua said how proud the family were when Liep completed year 12 last year. He was to start a new job at a Colac meatworks on Monday.

On the day he was killed, Liep had bought two jumpers at a local store in readiness for his new life in the country.

"He was a lovely boy, very supportive to the family and we love him very much," Mr Joshua said. "It is a tragedy, we never expected this to happen . . . we came here for a better life. But the family is holding together tightly."

As police continued their search for answers yesterday, the Herald Sun was invited by the Gony family to share their emotional story.

Caught in a bloody and raging civil war that took hold in 1983, three generations of a family were torn apart in 1999 as the Sudanese military rained bombs on the Nuer tribe's homes in their southern town of Nasir.

Ms Ojulo entrusted her three children -- Nyachuol, now 21, Dhiel, now 17, and Liep -- to her mother, Nyabiel. The four fled to neighbouring Ethiopia, on Sudan's eastern border, in 1998.

Martha's other son, Kor, now 24, fled alone to Egypt from southern Sudan and now lives in Canada: the family still do not know how he got to Egypt as he will not talk about it.

Ms Ojulo escaped Nasir alone and found herself in a refugee camp in another part of Ethiopia, not knowing the fate of her mother or children.

Ms Ojulo's Sudanese husband and the children's father, Johnston, an army colonel, was killed in the war. Nyabiel and the three children were placed in an Ethiopian refugee camp and in 1999 were sent to Tasmania where they spent six months adjusting.

With government help, Ms Ojulo's brother-in-law, Dodeng Puoch, one of the first Sudanese to arrive in Melbourne in 1985, relocated them to Noble Park.

For five years, Martha did not see her children as she struggled to find a way out of the abyss Africa had become.

Ms Ojulo was finally reunited with her three Melbourne-based children and her mother just three years ago. She has still not seen Kor since they split.

The children also now have a sister, Rouza, 6.

Mr Puoch said Australia offered safe haven for many caught up in the genocidal wars of Sudan and other parts of Africa, battling AIDs and extreme poverty.

Mr Puoch said he'd warned Liep and his cousins to respect Australian police and not take actions into their own hands.

"I told them, trust the police here, they are good here."

Liep will be buried next week in a Seventh-day Adventist church ceremony.