SPLM/A-IO claims opponents ‘waging war to weaken movement’
The Press Secretary and the Director for Information and Public Relations in the office of the First Vice President, Puok Both Baluang, have claimed that attacks on their forces in Mirmir and other areas were attempts to weaken SPLM/A-IO by conflict designers.
Puok told The City Review that the continued attacks on the SPLA-IO are the machinery designed to derail the peace process.
He appealed to the peace monitors to investigate the attacks and prosecute the perpetrators.
“The attacks launched on the cantonment site in Mirmir are barbaric attempts that we condemn in the strongest terms possible.” The attack on the cantonment site in Mirmir, Unity State, was spearheaded by the commissioner of Koch County,” he said.
“On that note, we urge the monitors to the agreement to investigate this incident and all the incidences that are similar and bring the people responsible to book because this insurgence should be halted and the SPLM/A-IG and other parties to the agreement should implement the agreement in letter and spirit.”
He called on the peace partners to demonstrate a clear commitment to the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
“Parties to the agreement must discourage any form of recruitment or activities that might jeopardize or destabilize the implementation of the peace agreement because we believe all these defections and all these attacks are engineered by the security organs within the current SSPDF,” he stated.
“And these are all attempts to destabilize the SPLM/A-IO or to weaken the SPLM/A-IO and destabilize the implementation of the peace agreement if possible. Therefore, all these acts are condemned in the strongest terms possible by the SPLM/A-IO and urge the partners to have a clear political will in the agreement.”
Not us
Two weeks ago, the Spokesperson of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF), Maj Gen Lul Ruai Koang, dismissed the claims that they were involved in a joint attack with the SPLA-IO forces in Mirmir.
Lul said the SSPDF had no presence in Nasir or Mirmir and that wherever they were, they had a commander and were not being commanded by commissioners.
He dismissed accusations from the SPLA-IO as baseless and argued that the SPLA-IO faction of Kit Gwang is yet to be integrated into the SSPDF.
Maj Gen Lul insisted that those who were engaged in clashes were generals who defected from SPLA-IO to Kit Gwang faction and were only backed up by the armed civilians in Unity State. He added that SPLA-IO had been fond of confronting those who defected from them and it was why there were frequent clashes with Kit Gwang forces.
“The commissioner of Koch County does not have forces under his command. We don’t have our forces that are being commanded by the commissioner, “Maj Gen Lul said.
Lul stressed that the process of integration was a long process and that it would take three months as per the agreement.
Gatwech seizes Mirmir
Two weeks ago, the commander of SPLA-IO Kit Gwang forces, Gatkhor Tut Chuol, claimed that their forces seized Mirmir, the cantonment site controlled by Dr. Riek Machar’s forces, pushing Machar’s forces to Padiar and Ruweng areas.
“The SPLA-IO forces attacked us at eleven o’clock in Padiar. We repulsed them until we captured the Mirmir cantonment site. The SPLA-IO has gone to Padiar and Ruweng, “he said.
However, the commander of the SPLA-IO forces Maj Gen George Gatbany Chuol, and the SPLA-IO spokesperson, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel both declined to comment on the capturing of Mirmir by Kit Gwang forces at the time.
