Kiir plans to gift opposition top security jobs

President Salva Kiir has revealed that his government will prevail on some senior leaders in the army, the police and organised forces to surrender some positions to accommodate the opposition.

The decision came after President Kiir met with the delegation that flew to Sudan to iron out the contentious issue pertaining to the establishment of the unified command in security.

The team included the Presidential Advisor on Security Affairs, Tut Gatluak Manime, the Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Martin Elia, Foreign Minister Mayiik Ayii Deng, and Chief of Military Intelligence, Lt Gen Marshal Stephen.

 “Competent officers who have displayed gallantry and discipline throughout their lives in the service of South Sudan occupy the senior leadership positions in the Army, the Police, and the organised forces. These negotiations mean that some will lose their seats, not because of their merit or performance, but to accommodate others in the peace agreement,’’ said the president.

He likened  this to the decision of the Vice President, Dr Wani Igga, in 2002, when he gave up his leadership position as the vice president for Taban Deng Gai in 2018.

He urged senior cadres in the organised forces to follow the examples set above by reserving positions for officers from the SPLM/A-IO and SSOA, so that peace could be restored throughout the country.

 “He further recalls the same decision by Vice President Taban Deng Gai, in 2018, for the R-ARCSS to be agreed upon and implemented.” Their examples should inspire our brothers across the organised forces who are now called upon to make similar heroic sacrifices for their beloved country,’’ a statement from the president’s office read in part.

Kiir urged the SPLM/A-IO and SSOA to be flexible in their pledged full support to Sudanese leaders’ proposal for full implementation of the peace agreement to stabilise the country.

“With this decision, the SPLM-IO and SSOA should now show flexibility and good will to the Sudanese proposal, which will be presented to them this weekend, a basis for building a fully integrated security force to stabilise South Sudan, protect its borders, and fully implement the peace agreement,” he concluded.

Opposition delays graduation

On Monday, President Kiir said the delay in the graduation of forces was because the SPLM/A-IO and other opposition parties had senior army officers without soldiers to command.

He noted that the presidency agreed earlier that the forces must be screened so that they would have the actual ranks in preparation for graduation.

”(SPLM/A-IO) and all other opponents were led by senior officers ranging from Lt. Gen. to Colonel.” cannot find a single soldier, if they are 3,000, you will find that maybe 2,000 are officers, and (the 1,000) will comprise of junior officers, and [when] we counted them, there were eight NCOs,” Kiir said.

Kiir reiterated that the parties to the agreement gave one week after which they claimed to have successfully worked on reducing ranks, but they failed to take action, adding that he could not reduce the ranks of forces being commanded by others, because it might cause war.

 “Yes, I am the president, but I cannot do this. This may cause defection in your forces, which may result in war. I don’t want this to happen, “he told the opposition parties.

“He (Dr Machar), told me to give him seven days, and I will do it. Until now, the months have only passed. He did not do it. This is the reason why we have not yet completed the organisation and the graduation of forces.”

He added that the door was open for dialogue on this to ensure that the issue of the graduation of forces was set aside.

“Delaying tactic”

In response to this, the Director for Information and Public Relations in the Office of the First Vice President, Puok Both Baluang, said the issue of opposition parties having officers with high ranks, who had no one to command was a tactic to delay the graduation of forces by SPLM and SSPDF.

“Our component in the security mechanism went back to all the training centres and carried out the task that was given to them by the Presidency. All this was done, so, this issue of the ranks is another delay tactic from the SSPDF/SPLM-IG to delay the graduation of forces, “Puok said.