Bakosoro urges SPLA not to target civilians RADIO TAMAZUJ (30 Aug.) The former Western Equatoria State Governor Joseph Bagansi Bakasoro has called on the SPLA forces under President Salva Kiir to attack only enemy forces, not the civil population.
The former governor made the remark in an interview to Radio Tamazuj from the US where he had gone for medical treatment. He was reacting to recent reports of targeted killings of civilians. “I came to USA for medical care. The situation in our country is very deplorable and the suffering of the civil population is unbearable. Even when we were fighting with Khartoum regime, soldiers did not kill civilians the way our gallant SPLA forces are killing their own people in the name of rebel or IO,” he said. “I thought SPLA soldiers are protectors. SPLA should concentrate fighting the real enemy wherever they are rather than killing and hacking innocent civilians.” Bakosoro said that an army if it is defeated on the battlefield should not take out its fury on innocent civilians in villages whilst retreating. “I condemn such behavior,” he said. “If we kill our subjects, who shall we govern? Who will vote for us in case there will be elections in the future? The behavior of our forces indicates that they would like to cleanse a certain group. Civilians should not be the target. Let us protect our civil population who contributed food to us during the struggle,” he said. He referred to the massive exodus of people from the Equatoria region toward Uganda. “Let us be concerned of life. Of course, there are some individuals who don't value life. These are a handful individuals. Life is precious, let us protect it. If the government cannot protect its own people, what option does a common citizen have than to evacuate to towns, villages, to suffer in refugee camps for no genuine cause? “We did not liberate ourselves from the Arabs to finish ourselves,” the governor said. Bakosoro was removed by President Salva Kiir last year shortly before the signing of a power-sharing agreement with Riek Machar. The ousted Western Equatoria governor was jailed following his removal by presidential decree, but later was allowed to leave the country. The ousted governor has never called for rebellion against the government even after his removal and after parts of his state descended into violence. Speaking yesterday he urged opponents of the regime to use negotiation and reconciliatory approaches to deal with the country's situation. “The same civilians will help you tomorrow in building the ruined country. Let us possess nationalism and avoid affiliation to our ethnic groups. No single ethnic group liberated the country, and will never govern the country alone,” the former WES governor said. “We need each other to make beauty of the earth. God was not mistaken to create different ethnic groups with various languages and stature. No ethnic group is bad but individuals in that ethnic groups are the ones who are bad.” “The beauty of the world is the various colors. If all colors were black, there could not be day.” Bakosoro called on all the South Sudanese in the world to be “hopeful” saying that hope “will never let us down or humiliate us. May God bless you all.” He concluded, “I will return to Africa as soon as my medical care is complete. I need to get better for the task ahead. Let the people have hope.” -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14op0dpwrc12F4ALOeGENNrRV_3sfiW7uQd74019rugZm5Q%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
