S. Sudan army commander downplays impact of sanctions
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January 4, 2015 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese chief of staff Gen. Paul
Malong Awan has downplayed the likely implications of last year’s
sanctions imposed on two senior army commanders, describing it as a
move to demoralise the army and encourage “hooliganism”.
JPEG - 46.7 kb
Rebel General Peter Gatdet Yak (L) and SPLA Major-General Marial
Chanuong Yol (R) (Photo: Reuturs/Goran Tomasevic)
"What has changed since they came up with those resolutions? The
intention was to demoralise and create divisions within the command
and to encourage lawlessness and hooliganism but to their surprise,
these threats consolidated our morale and bolstered our determination
to defend the sovereignty of the country,” he said.
Awan said the army, despite sanctions, became more united and stronger
than they thought, managing to contain armed opposition attacks in
Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei states due to government’s commitment to
the ceasefire agreement.
“Otherwise there would have been no rebellion to talk about this
time", the army chief told members of the military on Saturday.
In April last year, United States, president Barack Obama issued an
executive order directing his administration to impose sanctions on
South Sudanese parties allegedly responsible for ongoing violence and
human rights abuses in the young nation.
The decision impacted on Peter Gadet Yak, a general leading rebellion
in Unity state and Marial Chanuong Yol, commander of presidential
guards in South Sudan army.
Both Chanuong and Gadet are now banned from travelling to the US and
any of their assets in American financial institutions will be frozen.
Months later, however, the European Union (EU) member countries and
Canada imposed similar sanctions on the two military officers.
Meanwhile, Awan said the army’s general command rejected the proposal
to create two armies in one country during the interim period, should
the warring sides strike a peace deal in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“After the consultative conference of the leadership which you have
heard was conducted in Juba, the commander in chief later went to
Bilpam for a similar purpose with the command and he was told by the
general command that there is no room for two armies and our
delegation should stop negotiations if those were the things being
discussed with Riek and his group in Ethiopia,” he stressed.
“Do not be worry about this proposal. It would never be accepted”, Awan added.
The senior army officer further disclosed that its general command had
rejected withdrawal of the group he referred to as "friendly forces"
from the theatre of the conflict, downplaying claims the army was
incapable of defending war-hit nation.
“It was simply because of bilateral agreement between sovereign
states," he explained.
(ST)
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