Lam Akol – Malakal clashes are responsibility of SPLM not SPLM-DC
By Manyang Mayom
March 16, 2011 (RUMBEK) – The leader for Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) Lam Akol has rejected accusations by South Sudan’s ruling party that his party has armedi militias groups in Upper Nile state to destabilize the regions security.
The secretary general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) – from whom the SPLM-DC split in 2009 – Pagan Amum Okiech, said this week that SPLM-DC was behind clashes in Shilluk areas of Upper Nile and the state’s capital Malakal, which killed over 40 people according to reports.
Speaking to Sudan Tribune by telephone from Khartoum Akol dismissed the accusations as “nonsense” and were fabricated to distort SPLM-DC’s image among its supporters.
Akol said Amum’s allegations were “lies” adding that SPLM-DC has nothing to do with any militias in Malakal.
“I need to put it clear to people of Southern Sudan that SPLM-DC have no military wing present in Southern Sudan or elsewhere in the Sudan – we are purely a political party serving people of Southern Sudan” Akol said.
He said that the incident in Malakal was the responsibility of the state governor of and leaders of the SPLM and the South’s army the SPLA. The SPLA, now the official army of the South, fought for over two decades against Khartoum governments for the right of self determination. A 2005 peace deal made the SPLM the governing party of South Sudan and in January the region voted to secede from the north.
Since the SPLM-DC split from the SPLM nine months ahead of the 2010 general elections he has enjoyed a frosty relationship with his former colleagues. Amum’s claims are not the first time the SPLM have accused Akol’s party of having an armed wing and being backed by Khartoum.
Akol was made Sudan’s foreign minister after the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) as an SPLM member of the national cabinet but was withdrawn from the post over his perceived closeness to Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party.
The latest fighting in Malakal, Akol said, was casused by the SPLM/A’s failure to form agreements with the militias and armed groups in the area. He said that whenever fighting breaks out in the area the SPLM’s first response is to falsely the blame the SPLM-DC.
Akol hails from the Shilluk ethnic group from Upper Nile, which shares a border with North Sudan. In 1991, he was one of a group of SPLA generals that split from the mainstream of the movement in a failed attempt to oust its leader, the late John Garang. Along with most of the other generals involved, including South Sudan’s current vice president Riek Machar, Akol later rejoined the SPLM/A ahead of the CPA.
The attacks that struck Malakal on Saturday, Akol claimed, were a reaction to previous SPLA attacks on militias in the area.
Akol said that the people in Malakal are well armed to protect themselves and their property. The SPLA, he claimed, had provided the same militias with weapons and logistics but after they clashed with the SPLA earlier this month the militias had responded.
He noted that when negotiations are held in Upper Nile with the areas militias the SPLM-DC is not involved, indicating that they are not related to the groups.
“We are just political party without military wing let SPLM take serious note of this statement.”
The SPLM/A have claimed that a militia leader called Oliny carried out the attack on Malakal and that he was loyal to Lam Akol. Both the SPLM-DC and Akol have denied knowledge of Oliny.
“I am not aware of such person, me as a person and as a party I have no idea of Oliny”, said Akol.
Amun, who is also the minister for peace and CPA implementation in the southern government said that Akol was attempting to destabalise South Sudan ahead of its independence on July 9.
However, Akol said those making such accusations “have personal agenda”.
“We in SPLM-DC need Southern Sudan to get peaceful independence”, he said.
Since the signing of the CPA in Kenya, in 2005, Malakal town has remained a point for clashes between the SPLA/M and forces who were aligned to Khartoum during the civil war. In February clashes occured between elements of the Joint Integrated Units (JIU), which consist of both SPLA and Khartoum’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF).
As the South approaches independence the units, established as part of the CPA, are in the process of being dispanded. February’s fighting was triggered by an internal dispute between the SAF aligned militia of a JIU in Malakal after some soldiers refused orders to move north with their weapons.
The leader of that militia, Gabriel Tanginya (Tang) had agreed to integrate his forces into the SPLA late last year but by the time of the incident this had not materialized on the ground.
Akol told Sudan Tribune that the problems in Malakal had begun long before SPLM-DC was established in June 2009. In 2006 and 2008 fighting between the SPLA and Tanginya’s forces in Malakal resulted in over 300 deaths.
The “only solution”, the SPLM-DC leader said was for the SPLM as the South’s ruling party to take responsibility for the violence and find ways to prevent further conflict.
“Those who cause incidents in Malakal have direct contact with SPLA and SPLM in the region.”
South Sudan’s government is currently reviewing its constitution to prepare itself for its official declaration of independent on July 9, 2011. Various South Sudanese political parties have pulled out of the review process, including SPLM-DC, accusing SPLM, the dominant of South Sudan government ruling for imposing their preferences into the new constitution.
Akol said that the constitutional review was not giving equal voice to other parties and would not help South Sudan’s citizens “because it is one party working on constitution review.”
An independent South Sudan, he said, should not be ruled by one political party with laws imposed upon them by the SPLM alone.
“The SPLM does not want people to contribute in [the] constitutional review. [The] SPLM just need other parties to bless what they have done. We have left them and let us see what they will do with constitution”.
Future of SPLM-DC after independence
Other Southern Sudanese political parties have already relocated their offices to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, but SPLM-DC still operates out of a headquarters in Khartoum. After independence in July, Southern Sudanese in the north are likely to lose their citizenship rights – citizenship is one of the many independence issues the two parties are yet to agree on.
Akol said that after the independence of South Sudan, “we are going to move SPLM-DC headquarters to South Sudan”. He said that despite being based in Khartoum SPLM-DC are organized at all levels of South Sudan’s communities.
“The independence of South Sudan is important to SPLM-DC and our South Sudan independence flag will be raise up by South Sudan president Salva Kiir Mayardit with leader of opposition parties in Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly” Akol said.
(ST)