SPLM-DC denies links to any militia group in South Sudan
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By Ngor Arol Garang
March 14, 2011 (ABYEI) - The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for
Democratic Change (SPLM-DC), which became the official opposition
political party in South Sudan following elections in April last year,
denied on Monday that it is linked to any armed militia groups in the
region.
The statement comes in response to accusations made by senior members
of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the region’s
governing party, that the armed militia which attacked Malakal town on
Friday and Saturday was linked to the party.
SPLM-DC split from the SPLM in 2009, led by Sudan’s former foreign
minister Lam Akol. The SPLM, which have governed the south since a
2005 peace deal with Khartoum, have previously accused Akol and the
SPLM-DC of being backed by Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party.
The SPLM’s secretary general Pagan Amum said on Monday that the
fighting, which involved the use of heavy artillery and other modern
military weapons mounted to trucks, was carried out by militia
belonging to the SPLM-DC.
However, on Monday Lam Akol in a press release obtained by Sudan
Tribune said SPLM-DC was purely a political party and that it has no
connection with any armed militia group operating in South Sudan.
"This is not the first time that leading elements in the SPLM
especially the Secretary General, allege that our party owns militia
around Malakal town. We have affirmed time and again that we are
purely a political party that does not have any armed formations of
any sort", said Akol.
He also accused the SPLM of hoping that by repeating the accusation,
which he described as a lie, often enough it would start to be
believed.
"On this serious allegation which is tantamount to sedition, we
deposited a law suit against the SPLM Secretary General and the
national Ministry of Justice sent a letter to the President of the
Government of Southern Sudan requesting the lifting of immunity of
this person so that he is investigated on this serious allegation but,
up to the moment of this release, the authorities in the Government of
Southern Sudan did not act on that".
"Therefore, if the Secretary General was serious in his allegations,
what we simply ask him to do is to expedite the lifting of the
immunity to prove his claims. Otherwise, nobody will take him
seriously and his allegations shall remain nothing but cheap material
for political consumption of the credulous", explained Akol.
Both Akol and the SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum are members of the
Shilluk ethnic group but have long political differences, which
emerged during Sudan’s second North-South civil war (1983-2005). Akol
was one of a group of generals from the southern rebels the SPLA,
which acrimoniously split from the movement in 1991, before rejoining
the SPLA/M before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in
2005.
The SPLM-DC leader accused Amum, who is also the minister of Peace and
CPA implementation in the government of South Sudan, and the SPLM of
trying to destroy his party. During the election of April 2010 SPLM-DC
candidates claimed they experienced harassment and their campaigning
was restricted.
Akol’s press release said that the SPLM was preparing legislation that
would make it impossible for his party to register as a political
party. He claimed that on 9 November 2009, the president of the
government of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, issued a directive to all
governors of the ten Southern States not to allow SPLM-DC to practice
political work.
"The order did not specify the reasons for that drastic action. Our
party deposited on 25/11/2009 a law suit before the Constitutional
Court challenging the order. We expected the SPLM/GOSS to prove before
the Court their oft-repeated allegations that SPLM-DC has armed
formations. Nothing of the sort took place and the Constitutional
Court ruled on 17/1/2010 that the order was null and void. This
decision of the Constitutional Court did not please the SPLM which
tried hard to ignore it".
"But, the circumstances of the General Elections forced them to
recognize the court’s decision although they continued placing hurdles
against the party. Our members were arrested and tortured and our
offices forcefully closed down and we were prevented from campaigning
in the states of Bahr el Ghazal. We all still remember the SPLM’s
attempt to unseat the elected members of the SPLM-DC in the SSLA", he
explained.
Akol further claimed that the SPLM intended to control the work of
political parties in the South and planned to control “briefcase”
parties. He said that “the first target of the SPLM for deregistration
is SPLM-DC.”
“They think it is much easier to do so if they persist on linking the
party to armed groups. The SPLM is intent on establishing a one-party
system in the nascent Republic of South Sudan. For sure, they are
swimming against the current of this century", said Akol.
South Sudan will become independent in July following a referendum in
January, which saw an overwhelming vote for secession.
Peter Adwok Nyaba, minister of higher education in the federal
government of Sudan and who is a member of the Shilluk ethnic group,
on Monday in an Interview with Sudan Tribune said he has sufficient
evidence that Akol had supported the attack on Malakal. The minister
said he has information the group planned to oust Upper Nile state
governor Simon Kun Puoc.
"This is not a joke. I have sufficient evidence", said Adwok. "One of
the militia groups who attacked Malakal on Friday night and Saturday
morning, approached and confided to my sister in law their plan to
launch an attack so that she accumulate enough food for her survival.”
Adwok said that his sister in-law was told that the militia had been
instructed to kill him and his wife. He also said that they would have
attempted to shoot down Pagan Amum’s plane had he flown into Malakal.
The education minister also claimed that the militia intended to kill
Upper Nile governor Simon Kun Puoch and break into the town’s bank.
He said the armed youth from his tribe led by Oliny, which he
described as the Chollo or Shilluk Land Defense Forces, are indeed a
militia group supported and armed by what he called enemies of the
people of South Sudan. The SPLM have accused Khartoum’s NCP of backing
the SPLM-DC and Southern militia against the SPLM led government.
Adwok denied that the recent fighting in Shilluk areas was a
territorial dispute claiming it was part of an attempt by some
militia, apparently under the umbrella of renegade SPLA general George
Athor, to take power in Juba.
(ST)
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