South Sudan’s Matip says SPLA plotted attack on his guards
October 11, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – Paulino Matip, in a written statement, alleged that the attack against his guards in Bentiu this month was coordinated at the highest level of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The communiqué was passed to Sudan Tribune by one of his aides.
Sixteen people were reportedly killed and more wounded on October 2nd in a clash between guards loyal to Matip and forces led by Unity State Governor Taban Deng Gai. After the bloodshed, SPLA officials downplayed the incident as a “misunderstanding” between the two sets of guards.
Matip led a militia during the civil war that received support from the Northern government. He is now nominally the deputy commander-in-chief of the SPLA, having reconciled with SPLA after the close of the north-south war. He maintains units that have not been integrated with the rest of the Southern army.
In a memo last week addressed to the international community and the United Nations, he alleged that President Salva Kiir Mayardit plotted the attack in conjunction with Governor Taban Deng and the SPLA Chief of General Staff Lt-Gen. James Hoth Mai. He said “they coordinated with the governor to execute an attack on my bodyguards in Unity State (Bentiu).”
Paul Thurgow, who identified himself as being charged with security for Matip, passed the English-language memo to Sudan Tribune (Matip himself does not speak English). In a phone interview from the Bentiu area, Thurgow alleged that the attack involved coordination at a high level.
According to Thurgow, Matip’s guards accounted for 15 fatal casualties in the gun battle. He said that the SPLA side lost only one soldier.
The letter from Matip echoes earlier reports of Matip blaming SPLA commanders for defections by some of his top men. In his letter he named three close aides – Major General Thayiep Gatluak, Col. John Maluk, and Col. Mawiel Tuor – who he said were persuaded to desert him while he was in the United States for medical treatment.
He added that Kiir, Hoth and Taban Deng “bribed a big number of my bodyguards that finally rebelled against me.” He also pointed to an incident in Bentiu in which six of his guards were arrested.
“I don’t have any prejudice against the southerners and the president [Salva Kiir], but I would want the international community and the UN to know that I’m having a problem with the president. The president wants my bodyguards to desert through the governor of the Unity state’s influence,” Matip stated.
Before the Friday attack, some of Matip’s bodyguards were out getting their pictures taken for military identification cards. This was confirmed by Riek Machar, Vice President of Southern Sudan. According to Thurgow, Machar met with Matip on the day of the attack.
Matip said, “The president and his chief of general staff killed 16 soldiers including [a major who was issuing ID cards to the guards] and wounded 19 others. They killed a woman and a child in the process by crashing on them with a tank before vandalizing and looting my house.”
‘THERE IS NO COMMUNICATION’
Thurgow said that “there is no communication” among the parties to the conflict, but for this he blamed Kiir and Hoth. Earlier it was reported that in the wake of the attack, Matip had refused to meet with a delegation of Nuer elders sent by Kiir.
Matip, who signed the Juba Declaration on January 8, 2006 agreeing to integrate into SPLA, says now that the deal unknowingly “trapped [me] under the SPLA to do away with me in an uncouth old fashioned manner.”
He complained that after the bloodshed of October 2nd, he did not receive an explanation about the attack even though he had informed Kiir ahead of time that he was anticipating an attack. “In my capacity as the deputy commander in chief, I wonder why I couldn’t get any report from the general chief of staff even after issuing the decrees of intervention.”
“To all of you as the international community, may I bring it to your attention that since I joined this government, all I have received is utter disrespect by the president, general chief of staff and a simple state governor call Taban Deng with a group that I will not mention their names in this document,” he stated.
In the message, Matip points to old resentments, such as the fierce fighting in the 1980s between SPLA and his movement, Anyanya-2, which was the other main insurgent group struggling for primacy. “Years later, even after the death of John Garang, the hatred and witch hunt is still on. The issue is still alive and is being fuelled by the current interim president of the government of south Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit,” he stated.
‘IT HAS BEEN RESOLVED ALREADY’
In contrast to Matip’s letter, statements by SPLM and SPLA leaders have not attributed any political significance to the clashes. Speaking at a press conference in Juba on the day after the attack, Major General Kuol Diem Kuol, the SPLA official spokesman, affirmed that the clashes in Bentiu “are purely an SPLA affair.”
Likewise, Minister of Information Paul Mayom called the attack a “misunderstanding between Paulino Matip’s guards and the guards of the governor.”
Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the Government of Southern Sudan Head of Mission in Washington, D.C. explained last week, “It has been resolved already… You know, soldiers sometimes they behave irresponsibly. These are just clashes that are normal and it has been brought to a halt, it has been investigated. It is nothing much. It is nothing political, nothing tribal, nothing connected with the two leaders. It’s just these guards misunderstand each other and it has been brought to an end.”
(ST)