Rival South Sudan parties differ over Juba security arrangements
April 19, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese rival parties have differed over interpretation and implementation of the security arrangements for the national capital, Juba, further delaying the scheduled arrival of the first vice-president designate, Riek Machar.
Juba also accused the top opposition leader, Machar, of failing to “show up” in Juba on 18 and 19 April as scheduled, saying the government was informed that Machar had called off his return to Juba “indefinitely.”
Minister of information and broadcasting, the official spokesman of the government, Michael Makuei Lueth, in a press statement on Tuesday said the opposition group had only 40 soldiers left to come to Juba as part of the joint integrated forces in order to add to the already arrived 1,370 to make a total of 1,410 as allegedly agreed in Addis Ababa last year.
He also accused Machar of wanting to come to Juba with weapons that can destroy tanks and hit far targets.
“Today, 19th April, 2016, the Government was informed that he [Machar] wanted to come with an arsenal of arms, inter alia, anti-tanks, lazer guided missiles and heavy machine guns,” said Lueth, who cited it as a violation.
“The SPLM/A-IO force currently deployed in Juba is 1370 meanwhile it is supposed to [be] 1410. Thus it is less by 40 and this is the number expected to arrive Juba,” he told journalists.
He called on the Joint Military Ceasefire Committee (JMCC) to approve the armament of the 40 “accordingly.”
GOVERNMENT MISINFORMATION
An official of the SPLM-IO however dismissed the government’s interpretation of the deployment of the opposition forces, saying it was a deliberate attempt to “misinform” the peace partners and the public at large.
“The government’s statement is an attempt to misinform others. It is not the correct or total deployment of the SPLA-IO’s components of the joint integrated forces in accordance with the security arrangements for the capital, Juba,” said James Gatdet Dak, official spokesman of the opposition leader, Machar.
He explained that the currently deployed 1,370 of the opposition forces in Juba is a combination of soldiers and police forces, with the police composing of nearly 40% of the force which arrived in Juba last week.
Dak said several hundreds more of the military forces are yet to be transported to Juba, together with additional hundreds of police forces.
“In accordance with the security arrangements in the peace agreement, we in the SPLM/SPLA (IO) still have to transport to Juba over 1,500 troops of combined soldiers and police forces. Hence, we have several hundreds more soldiers to transport to Juba and several hundreds of police force to transport to Juba. And we can transport them by any means of transportation available,” Dak further argued.
The official said the opposition faction, according to the security arrangements, is supposed to deploy to Juba a total of 2,910 forces, with categories of the military having 1,410 and the police comprising 1,500.
He said out of the 1,410 categories of SPLA-IO soldiers who are supposed to arrive in Juba, only about half of them are in Juba while the rest are yet to be transported to the capital. Similarly, he said the majority of the total police force of 1,500 has not arrived in Juba.
For the government to say only 40 SPLA-IO soldiers are left to be transported to Juba, he said, is a misinformation and a violation of the security arrangements.
He also said the opposition’s top leader has not called off his return to Juba “indefinitely” as alleged by the government, adding that he was only waiting for the government to give landing permit for the plane which will transport the opposition’s army chief, Simon Gatwech Dual, their soldiers and weapons.
The opposition leader’s spokesperson also said the government had heavy weapons including tanks and helicopter gunships deployed in Juba, Luri, west of Juba town and around the capital and should not therefore mind about similar counter-weapons from the SPLA-IO.
He further questioned the intentions of the government by not allowing the implementation of the security arrangements to take place as agreed by the rival armies.
Machar, he said, has been ready to travel to Juba as soon as the government issued the clearance.
He said the chief of general staff of the SPLA-IO, General Simon Gatwech, has been stranded at Gambella, an border Ethiopian town, airport with the soldiers and their weapons ready to travel to Juba once the clearance is done.
(ST)