The leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) has answered the party’s splinter faction commonly known as Kit-Gwang over the latter’s recent allegations advanced on its position paper.
Amidst intensive haggling with the government over the possibility of flying to Juba for reintegration into the peace implementation arrangement, the Kit-Gwang faction—which has also disowned SPLM/A-IO boss and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar—has engaged the Machar-allied side in verbal exchanges.
Monday this week, the Kit-Gwang political outfit led by Gen Simon Gatwech released their position paper and fronted a myriad of accusations on the doorstep of Dr. Machar.
For instance, the group claimed that Dr. Machar had neglected the entire military leadership in the decision-making process within the movement.
They further claimed that Machar left for Juba in 2020 to take up the position of First Vice President with few members of the party’s Political Bureau without consulting the military, only to ‘‘betray the party and abandon its reform agenda put forward in 2014’’.
The Machar-led political outfit has come out to dispel the claims and rubbish the accusations which describe as baseless.
Stop complaints
The Director of Information in the FVP office who also serves as the acting spokesperson of SPLM-IO, Puok Both Baluang, told The City Review that the accusation of the Kit-Gwang was not based on accurate and concrete evidence.
Puok argued that all the accusations by the members of the breakaway faction only sought to tarnish the reputation of his chairman and also the leadership of the party.
“We have been through this and this is not the first time. They (Kit-Gwang) do not have other accusations that are accurate that can support all these claims and that is why we consider their accusations baseless and it is against the movement and its leadership,” he said.
The spokesperson further clarified that the leadership of the party did consultations even at the lower level before the formation of the national and the state government on who should be nominated to which position by the region.
“The nomination of each member of SPLM/A-IO to hold a position was done through consultations, not by the enemy of SPLM/A-IO trying to implicate and mislead the public,” Puok stressed.
However, the Kit-Gwang in their position paper maintained that: “the team that went to Juba has failed to implement the agreement and has neither carried proper communication nor have they been clarifying to the leadership why they took such an impulsive decision.”
The group further claims that Dr. Machar downplayed the requests by the military leadership of the party in 2020 to have consultations with them.
The splinter group claimed the chairman (Dr. Machar) told them SPLM/A-IO has been transformed into a political entity where anyone who wanted to be political had to choose whether to join politics or wait at the cantonment or training centers, without a concrete program insight.
“The military leadership wrote three (3) consecutive letters requesting the former Chairman to have consultations with them at the SPLM/A-(IO) general headquarter in 2020,” the Kit-Gwang position paper statement read in part.
Negotiation
This statement comes the group prepares to enter into dialogue with the government to help prevent the split within the movement.
Last week, a delegation from the breakaway faction led by Gen Gatwech and Gen Johnson Olony met government officials under the leadership of Presidential Advisor of Security Affairs Tut Gatluak, in Khartoum, Sudan.
The group discussed the plans to begin the peace talks to end the intermittent armed violence between the rival groups that have rocked Magenis, Upper Nile. At that meeting, Gen Gatwech expressed willingness to bring his team to the negotiating table to end the cyclic disagreements that have triggered fierce fights between his camp and Machar’s men.
But on October 7, Mr. Baluang told The City Review that the SPLM/A-IO never recognized the members of the wantaway group especially after they pledged allegiance to a decree which violated their party constitution.
“None of the Kit-Gwang members [is] part of the SPLM/A-IO including being a member of the political bureau. The three commanders are no longer in the Military Council of the SPLM/A-IO [and] therefore they cannot come up with the decision on behalf of the SPLM/A-IO,” Baluang told City Review on telephone interview yesterday.
“The SPLM/A-IO is not a political armed military movement, the decision should not be taken by the army. Decision making in the SPLM/A-IO first comes from the political bureau, none of these Kitgwang people is a member of the political bureau,” he added.