Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces’ (SSPDF) general headquarters has countered the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army’s (SPLM/A-IO) complaint that there were violations in the recent implementation of the organised forces command structures.
On Friday, the First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar’s led SPLM/A-IO raised concerns over Tuesday’s Presidential Decree which led to the appointment of senior officers to the various positions in the April 3 organised forces’ command structures. The SPLM/A-IO accused the SPLM-IG of violating the deal.
The opposition said there were a number of violations in the command structures of SSPDF, National Police and the National Security Service (NSS), pointing out that in National Police, three directorates were omitted and five new ones were created contrary to the agreed-upon structures.
According to SPLM/A-IO, President Salva Kiir had omitted the directorate of auxiliary forces, custom, and public relations in the National Police and created five more directorates, including Assistant IGP for Investment, Assistant IGP and Commissioner for Central Equatoria, Assistant IGP for Human Resource Development, Assistant IGP for Oil Field, and Assistant IGP for Inspectorate.
They said the move raised the total directorates to 17, contrary to the 14 all parties agreed on, and that was the first violation by their peace partner.
Allegations come up
In the SSPDF, SPLM/A-IO cited three areas of violation in the appointments of the directorates of Assistant Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) for procurement, assistant CDF for production, and the appointment of the commander for sector two in Malakal.
“These positions were agreed upon according to article 9 of the agreement signed on April 3, that it would be discussed and agreed on by a joint committee of the parties, and the presence of a mediator was needed to allocate all these positions.”
“So, this is another violation in the SSPDF structure because the two directorates, procurement and production, are in the ministry,” said Puok Both Baluang, Director for Information and Public Relations, who also serves as the Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President on Friday.
Nothing
new introduced
However, the Spokesperson of the SSPDF Gen. Lul Ruai said he had not seen any genuine reason for the opposition to complain as there was no violation made. He pointed out that President Kiir had just upgraded the directorates of procurement and production to be headed by the Lt. Generals which did not amount to a violation.
“The appointments which were made were in accordance with the agreed command structures. There is nothing that we have created. All these directorates have been existing and the only difference is that have been headed my Lieutenant Generals,” said Gen. Lul.
Dr. Machar’s office further raised complaints in the internal and external security bureau, noting that the violation needed to be rectified by the president to allow the smooth peace implementation to proceed.
“According to the agreement also, the structure will be director-general for both internal and external security, and deputy plus the directorates. Now the president has established another deputy which was not agreed upon by the parties.”
“The president created a directorate of the deputy director-general for administration and finance in the internal security bureau and appointed Gen. Natale, the former deputy director-general, to the position. Also in the external security bureau, he created the same position and gave it to Gen. Gregory,” said Mr. Baluang.
He continued, “This attempt by the president is to move and separate the opposition from the finance within these directorates, and that will make it harder for us as opposition groups to implement the reforms, especially in the finance sector within all the organized forces.”
He said the SPLA-IO generals took part in a swearing-in ceremony on Thursday to demonstrate the opposition’s political will to peaceful solutions to the conflict, adding that “the graduation of forces will not happen as we agreed” because of the continued violations.
“And also it will cripple the work of these director generals or deputy directors of the directorates allocated to the opposition. So we believe this is a violation committed by the president through the decrees that were announced to establish the unified command structure,” said Baluang.
He added, “We have written to the president to take a wise decision call off all these violations that he has announced or made, and also the international community and the guarantors to take up the role regarding the supervisor of the implementation of the peace agreement because these sequences of violations in the peace so that we expedite the implementation of the remaining chapters of the agreement.”
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