JUBA – The Red Army Foundation has demanded inclusion in the decision and policy-making in the secretariat of the ruling party SPLM.
“We have come to this point only asking for our rights for integration to be part of something (SPLM) and we are only asking to be involved so that we can serve them and the nation,” Deng Bol Arial Bol, Chairman of Red Army Foundation told the City Review in an exclusive interview on Tuesday in Juba.
“We don’t want to be secretary generals, we do not want to be the president, or vice president or Deputy Chairman or Chairman of the SPLM. No!” he added.
Bol dismissed allegations that the Red Army was fighting for top leadership after they issued a statement suspending any political activity with the SPLM.
The political outfit was to meet on August 26 at the SPLM premises but canceled its plans at the last minute announcing a disengagement from the affairs of the secretariat.
Bol cleared the air over the misunderstanding where he said that some people might think that the Red Army was threatening the leadership of the country but that is not true.
He added that issues within the party are discussed at various levels as stipulated in the party’s protocols.
“…we have a league that is called SPLM-Red Army League that has constitutional rights within the SPLM. [This ensures that we do everything] to this option without being oppressed or being abused in the system,” Bol stressed.
“So, whoever thinks that [they] have the ground to defend the SPLM and is not in the leadership of the SPLM is completely wrong; and is interfering with the administrative issues of the party.”
When contacted for comment, the SPLM National Secretary for Political Affairs, Kuol Atem, said the Red Army Foundation has been blaming the SPLM Secretariat for no reason. He said the Red Army Foundation is registered as a civil society organization and not a political organization.
Not recognized
“The Red Army Foundation was registered by the RRC. So how do you blame the SPLM as a political organization? What is the connection here because if there is a body that can blame us it should be a body that is part of us and the body is called the Red Army League,” Atem said.
Atem said the Red Army Foundation should put their demands to the civil society because it has been registered as a non-political entity.
“Let him go to the South Sudan Civil Society as an umbrella. This is where his right is; the SPLM Red Army League is here with us and we don’t have any problem with them at all.
“…we have not received any document from them at all and if there is anybody to make any demands, it should be the red army league. They have the right and not the Red Army Foundation,” he stressed.
Dr. Abraham Kuol who spoke on behalf of the members of the Red Army League said none of them was part of or contributed in the statement released by Red Army Foundation on August 15.
“Nobody contributed to that statement and the only document we wrote was just condemning what Bol wrote.”
He added the letter was not concerning all the Red Army outfits “because it was a personal letter from the Chairman of the Red Army Foundation and we condemn that letter’’.
“If he has grievances to the SPLM, he has the right to come to the party and talk to the officials concerned but not outside tarnishing the name of the red army by saying the Red Army has a problem. We don’t have a problem with our government,” Kuol protested.