SPLM-IO reject Machar’s removal from ruling party structure
October 25, 2022 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s armed opposition (SPLM/A-IO) has rejected the ruling party’s (SPLM) decision to remove Riek Machar from its leadership structure.
The SPLM political bureau, at last week’s meeting chaired by President Salva Kiir, ousted the armed opposition leader from the position of the ruling party’s deputy chairperson.
Machar’s party has, however, rejected the decision to strip both him and the former SPLM Secretary General, Pagan Amum from the party membership and other leadership roles.
“No faction can dismiss any member of the other factions from SPLM,” the SPLM/A-IO said in a statement it issued on Monday.
The SPLM was founded as the political wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which led the fight for South Sudan’s independence.
The party, however, split into different factions after civil war erupted in December 2013.
According to the SPLM-IO, Machar’s removal violated the Arusha Agreement of 2015.
The bilateral decision taken by the SPLM-In-Government (SPLM-G) “is a grave violation of the Agreement on the Reunification of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement signed on January 21st, 2015 in Arusha which was mediated by Tanzania’s ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), in which the three SPLM factions namely SPLM (10), SPLM (IG) and SPLM (FD) committed themselves to the re-unification of the party to enhance national unity, reconciliation, and healing amongst the people of South Sudan”.
“The Arusha Agreement is a complementary accord to the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) and consequently the revitalized ARCSS. The Arusha Agreement is aimed to bring together the SPLM factions to address most of the crucial points on political, organizational, and leadership issues,” it stressed.
The armed opposition said it remains committed to the R-ARCCC and the Arusha accord.
“Finally, the leadership of SPLM (IO) respects and firmly commits itself to the two Agreements (R-ARCSS and Arusha). We, therefore, hold the SPLM (IG) accountable for violating the Arusha Agreement and aborting the reunification of the SPLM,” it stated.
But SPLM’s Interim Secretary General, Peter Lam Both said the party was not a faction.
He argued that Machar and Amum quit to form own parties and have been unwilling to return for the SPLM’s reunification since the signing of the Arusha reunification accord.
“First, SPLM is not a faction. It is the mother from which the splinter groups originated. Only such dissident organisations can be called factions SPLM doesn’t need legitimacy from its splinter groups to be itself. No legally competent organ of SPLM has ever changed its name from SPLM to ‘SPLM-IG. The negotiators came up with such nomenclature to help them differentiate those factions which refused to relinquish SPLM from their prefixes,” Both said statement issued on October 25.
“Therefore, it is not the return of the children that will name the legally registered mother”.
The ruling party splits into several factions in December 2013 after its leadership failed to agree on how they should reform the SPLM in order to deliver on its democratic ideals to meet aspirations of its supporters and fulfil pledges to the people.
(ST)