Machar’s office dismisses accusation over occupation of office by Dok Nuer
June 22, 2016 (JUBA) – The office of South Sudan’s First Vice President, Riek Machar, has dismissed as “untrue” an allegation by a senior diplomat allied to President Salva Kiir, that Machar has only appointed officials from his “Dok Nuer” clan to positions in his new office, leaving out others.
He also protested against the recent appointment of Major General Yiey Dak Wie, a Dok Nuer military officer, as Director General for Internal Security in the SPLA-IO, further alleging that one of his senior colleagues should have been appointed instead.
“I want Riek Machar’s Ansars to tell me how Riek Machar could appoint Yiey Dak as IO DG for internal security bureau while he is junior to Gen. Thoi Chany. Within the security officers who joined the SPLA-IO after December, 2013, the most senior person (a part from Keat Gang) who should hold the position of DG for internal security of the IO, is Thoi Chany,” Gordon Buay wrote in his article.
“Why did Riek Machar set aside the military hierarchy and appointed Yiey Dak if it is not the obvious fact that he is from Dok? We know that Thoi Chany is from Gawaar that is why he was not appointed,” he further claimed.
He also said that there were only 150 soldiers from Dok Nuer who participated in the war for the past two years and should not have been rewarded, unlike other Nuer clans such as Lou Nuer and Jikany Nuer whom he said did most of the fighting.
Buay accused the South Sudanese first vice president of wanting to give all the benefits of the war to Dok Nuer clan, adding that President Kiir treats better his allied Nuer.
“President Kiir has never let down people who stood with him unlike Riek Machar. The Nuer on the side of the SPLM-IG [in Government] are treated better than the Dinka.”
“When he [Machar] was in Pagak, he pretended to love all the Nuer. Now that he landed in Juba, all the food and the money of the SPLM-IO belong to Dok Nuer,” he claimed.
“One may feel sad that people who stood with Riek Machar like Ding Lam Yuel are now jettisoned and replaced by Dok boys who were dinning in Khartoum during the war. Even Dok fishermen who were busy fishing in Khartoum are now the ones occupying the office of Riek Machar,” he further alleged.
CLAIM UNTRUE
Machar’s press secretary, James Gatdet Dak, dismissed the allegation as “untrue”, saying the office of the first vice president has not yet appointed staff for the office.
“No, the allegation is untrue. The office is new and nobody has been appointed. I don’t know from where he got this misinformation that people have been appointed already in the office and all or majority of them are from the Dok Nuer clan,” Dak told Sudan Tribune in response to the allegation.
“Appointments have not yet been done,” he said, adding that not only Nuer applicants have submitted their applications to the office, but also applicants from different tribes in the country.
He also reminded that the office of the Vice President before the December 2013 crisis was the most diverse in terms of members of different tribes employed “if comparison was necessary.”
“If you can recall, the Office of the Vice President before 2013 crisis was far more diverse in terms of people from different tribes employed there. The top positions in that office such as the Executive Director and Director General for Administration and Finance were not from Nuer,” he said.
While Buay bragged that President Kiir’s office has employed a Nuer as a deputy protocol officer, Dak said Machar’s top protocol officer is from Dinka ethnic group for all these years up to now.
He also added that there was only one person from Dok Nuer employed as one of the staff in the entire office of the Vice President before the war broke out.
“For instance, I have been his Press Secretary for several years and I am not from Dok Nuer. I am not even from Unity state from where he [Machar] hails,” Dak further cited.
Dak also argued that in the 10 ministers and 3 three deputy ministers of the SPLM-IO appointed in the transitional government of national unity per the nomination of Machar, not even a single official from the Dok Nuer clan has been appointed as minister.
In the top military command of the SPLA-IO, he added, there is no Dok Nuer too. The chief of general staff of the SPLA-IO is from Lou Nuer ethnic group and his senior deputies are either from other tribes and from other Nuer clans.
Dak however acknowledged that two officers from the Dok Nuer community, including Major General Yiey Dak Wie and Major General Simon Dhiling Keah, have been recently appointed to be in charge of departments of national security and military intelligence, respectively.
He said the accusation that the Dok Nuer officials were dominating the SPLM/SPLA (IO) political and military leadership structures or the office of the First Vice President was false.
Dak advised that it was important that some diplomats of the government should begin to learn discipline and to respect the First Vice President as their second top executive boss in the country and not to behave like “independent activists” outside the government.
“We are called a unity government and His Excellency Dr. Riek Machar is the First Vice President of this government. I don’t see a point or reason for a government diplomat to accuse his boss in public. Even the foreign minister who nominates these diplomats for appointments or deployments to represent the nation in foreign countries also reports to the First Vice President, in the Presidency. I think there is need to make public officials from our partner in government understand that they should not continue to accuse their boss publicly as if he is not their First Vice President,” Dak further said.
He also criticized South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) for recently broadcasting a press conference by defecting officers from the SPLA-IO who accused Machar of nepotism in the appointment of military officers.
“Similarly, it was strange for the state-owned TV station to allow military officers to air their defection to President Salva Kiir’s military and accuse the First Vice President of the same government. This was like a defection from the First Vice President to the President within the same Presidency of the same government. I thought it was not healthy to entertain this trend on the national TV,” Dak added.
He challenged whether the same TV management would have allowed defecting officers from the SPLA to SPLA-IO to announce their defection on the national TV, citing bias in its management.
He concluded that when officials will be appointed in the office of the First Vice President, there will be officials from different ethnic groups, not only from Nuer or Dok Nuer.
(ST)