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Sudan Tribune

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Loss of vision in SPLM caused civil war, says Dinka elder

September 20, 2017 (JUBA) – A Dinka elder has linked the South Sudanese conflict to the “loss of vision without substitute”, stressing that the movement was founded on socialist principles with the view to liberating the masses from the yolk of repression, but ended up repeating the same things it had rejected.

President Salva Kiir greets First Vice President Riek Machar before to start a meeting at the South Sudanese presidency in Juba on 3 June 2016 (Photo Moses Lomayat)
President Salva Kiir greets First Vice President Riek Machar before to start a meeting at the South Sudanese presidency in Juba on 3 June 2016 (Photo Moses Lomayat)
“Historically, the SPLM [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement] was founded on socialist principles of liberation and revolution, an ideological pattern on which Africa conceived and achieved freedom and independence,” wrote Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey, a prominent member of the Jieng (Dinka) Council of Elders.

“But SPLM leaders seem to have lost the socialist ideology without substitute, now they are fighting themselves as individuals, not government and opposition because they lack ideology,” it added.

According to the official, lack ideology lured the South Sudanese communities into the “meaningless, useless and senseless” civil war.

“It [civil war] must be stopped”, he further stressed.

Akuey, also head of the legislative committee for human rights and constitutional affairs at South Sudan’s Council of States, reiterated the root causes of the conflict in South Sudan can be addressed through reconciliation of the ruling party leadership.

The war, according to the official, broke out as a result of differences among SPLM leaders, which could not be resolved in December 2013.

On Monday, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni attributed the civil war in South Sudan to “lack of ideology”.

Museveni, according to the New Vision, blamed South Sudanese politicians for pushing forward identity politics while forgetting the interests of the people and that he was working hard to unite the different factions of the country’s ruling party.

“Identity is important but it should not be promoted at the expense of the common interests of the people. Even Uganda was a failed state but was rescued by a student movement that taught people to forget about identity politics,” he said.

South Sudan’s civil war is a conflict between government troops and the armed opposition forces. In December 2013, President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup d’état. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

(ST)

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