South Sudan army divided over Juba town withdrawal plan
December 24, 2015 (JUBA) – The Military Command Council (MMC) of South Sudan army (SPLA) is sharply divided into groups of military officers in support and against practical implementation of security arrangements with the armed opposition, raising doubts whether the peace deal signed between the country’s warring parties would hold.
The accord which ends 21 months of civil war provided for the implementation of the security arrangements before a government of national unity can be formed by the parties in which the opposition leader, Machar, will become a powerful first vice-president and run the country with president Kiir for 30 months at the end of which the country shall conduct elections.
The two leaders would also command separate armies for at least 18 months before they could be reunified into one national army based on security sector reforms that will be implemented during the transitional period.
In the meantime, the government will deploy in Juba up to 5,000 troops both police and military while the opposition army would deploy about 3,000 of their forces in the capital. Each party would also deploy 400 police forces in each of the three states of Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei after withdrawing their current military forces from the state capitals.
However, a high ranking military officer from the government revealed to Sudan Tribune on Thursday that the senior army command was divided over the implementation of the arrangements, saying some including the chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, and other senior officers have been against it while others are for its implementation in ending the war.
He said he expected a lot of challenges and resistance in the implementation of the security arrangements to withdraw forces 25km outside Juba due to some of his colleagues opposing to immediate withdrawal while other hardliners totally opposed to the whole arrangement.
“The devil and the honesty of some of my colleagues will now be found in the implementation. We should have moved out of Juba town three weeks ago if there have not been signs of reluctance to comply and implement security arrangement. Some of the officers are saying that withdrawal from Juba will create security vacuum if the forces are withdrawn before the deployment of the joint forces,” a senior military officer told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.
“Others are saying no, why should we withdraw from Juba town,” added the senior commander who also participated at the security arrangements workshop in Addis Ababa in October.
He further claimed that the army chief, Paul Malong Awan, and some government officials have connived and formed an understanding against implementation of some key security provisions.
“It will not be easy implementing security arrangements. Some of us who were selected by the same command and sent for security arrangements workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, no longer go into meetings with the chief of general staff now. He does not even greet us when we meet. We begin to wonder and ask ourselves what mistakes we did. We thought we were only responding to the assignment,” he wondered.
Last month, the South Sudanese army announced that it had withdrawn from Juba 250 soldiers, but several thousands have continued to remain in the nation’s capital.
The chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Festus Mogae, on Tuesday called on senior members of the two parties in their first meeting in Juba to begin the full implementation of the security arrangements in the process that would lead to formation of a transitional government.
However, government army’s chief of general staff, Awan, was not in the meeting due to his absence from Juba. He travelled to his home state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal and had to return on Tuesday evening, reportedly to avoid reception of the opposition’s advance team in protest to the implementation of the peace agreement.
(ST)