South Sudanese rebels rubbish alleged letter to president Bashir over military logistics
June 28, 2015 (NAIROBI) – The South Sudanese armed opposition faction led by former vice president, Riek Machar, has rubbished a letter allegedly written by their top army chief to Sudanese president and described it as a “concocted” attempt to score false evidence over the alleged military support from the neighboring Sudan.
The letter, which has been widely circulated in the social media, also complained to president Bashir about how the rebel leader, Riek Machar, and his chief negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, have been mismanaging the logistics resulting to insignificant military achievement on the ground.
“Your Excellency, we are not happy the way Dr. Riek and Taban Deng are handling the logistics you offer to us. Due to that reason, that is why the operation is not going well on the ground in South Sudan and we don’t understand how the logistics is being managed,” partly reads the letter which copy Sudan Tribune has obtained.
The scanned letter, which carried no official letterhead and logo of the rebel movement, further suggested to president Bashir that the military logistics should no longer be managed by “politicians” and called on the president to allow the top commanders to meet him in person in Khartoum and agree on how to handle the matter.
It also suggested that the logistics be directly handed over to the top commanders in their various areas of control in Upper Nile, Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions.
However, rebel leader’s press secretary, James Gatdet Dak, said the letter was forged by government agents of president Kiir who were desperate to concoct an evidence.
“This is rubbish. It is a concocted attempt to try to score false evidence and drive wedge between our military commanders and their commander-in-chief,” Dak told Sudan Tribune when contacted on Saturday.
He said the rebel’s chief of general staff, General Simon Gatwech Dual, dismissed the allegation as work of the enemy, saying he did not write a letter.
“General Simon Gatwech Dual was surprised to learn about this forged letter. It was news to him,” he added.
Other sources however said the top commanders were not happy in the way Machar was not serious to effectively fight the war and overthrow president Kiir whom they accused of December 2013 genocide against “thousands” of innocent Nuer civilians in the national capital, Juba.
They said whenever rebel fighters captured towns they were forced to withdraw because their ammunitions always got finished unlike the government that always had enough ammunitions to sustain fighting for several days or weeks.
In the April 2015 conference in the rebel held territory of Pagak, top rebel commanders reportedly challenged Machar to provide logistics to the forces on the ground so as to take full control of Upper Nile region and also take the war to Juba and other regions of Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria.
(ST)