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Press Releases from the SPLA Spokesman

Please find below a repository of press releases from the office of Political and Moral Orientation. Click on the particular press release to read it in detail.

Most Recent Press Release

No Dismissal of SPLA Deputy Commander-In-Chief

Col. Malaak Ayuen Ajok

On Monday, April 20th 2009, you wrote in your Arabic Daily Newspaper, Al Intibaha, that signs and symptoms of division and clashes are emerging between SPLA and General Paulino Matip forces in Central Equatoria State (Juba) on the allegation that Lt. General Paulino Matip has been dismissed from his current position of Deputy Commander-In-Chief in order to bolster Dinka dominance in the Southern Army (SPLA). You also stated that he is being replaced with one Major General “Dong Gall” who, according to your report is a Nuer from Mayom County, Unity State, and also a Dinka loyalist

One of the reasons you stated for General Matip’s removal from his post is that he is very close to General Salva Mathok Gengdit, a Dinka by tribe, who is our current Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration.

You went ahead saying that your sources confirmed that on 19/04/09, clashes and confrontation had taken place between the two parties in Juba town and another location in the state on the ground of discontent among the Nuer people (Paulino’s tribe). The sources have disclosed that the protesters described the dismissal of Paulino Matiep as a ploy by the Dinka on targeting the Nuer in a bid to weaken the latter.

Here is our response:

First, after the signing of the historic Juba Declaration which paved the way for the unity and solidarity of Southern Sudanese, General Matip Nhial ceased to have his own forces. All the forces he commanded, including himself, were integrated into the SPLA according to the CPA provision. We therefore find it unpalatable, unfathomable and offensive when agents of division in Khartoum, of which Al Intibaha is one, treat General Matip as separate entity from the SPLA. To set the records straight, General Paulino Matip Nhial is the current Deputy Commander-In-Chief of SPLA. He does not have forces outside the SPLA in which he is the second in Command.

Second, unless Intibaha is insinuating that Southern Sudanese are about to dishonour their own agreement – Juba Declaration – there is no tinge of truth in the propaganda that General Matip is being dismissed. Unlike the North which has dishonoured ‘too many agreements’ it signed with the South we in the South are bound to honour agreements we signed among ourselves.

Third, on the 19th of April 2009, Juba was calm while residents went about their daily businesses. There were no reports of insecurity or gun battles by any group, leave alone a massive gun battle between SPLA and the so-called Matip forces, in Juba and its environs. It is therefore surprising and mind boggling that Al Intibaha would forgo its journalistic ethics and resort to manufacturing news, concocting non-existent events and incorporate them in their news stories. We challenge the editorial team and management of Intibaha to prove beyond doubt that such incident occurred in Juba.

Fourth, Maj General Gong Gall is either in SAF’s payroll or a fictitious name that does not exist in the rank and files of the SPLA. Besides, the name is alien.....

Col. Malaak Ayuen Ajok
Director of Information and Civil-Military Relations
SPLA GHQs

Response to Human Rights Watch Accusation against the SPLA

The SPLA leadership is alarmed by the recent report published by Human Rights Watch purporting that SPLA had been involved in malpractices. Although the validity of the statements is difficult to prove on both sides, the researchers who compiled this report failed to interview even a single personality from the SPLA leadership so that our acceptance or denial of the alleged abuses is also written along with the reasons why the SPLA would accept to shoulder or deny these accusations. It is because of the absence of our side of the story from the report that has prompted this response.

Since the inception of SPLA, the army had been a mobilizing force which was largely reliant on the civilian population for food, logistics and of course its main bloodline: the recruits.

The civil support for the SPLA did not come on a golden plate. Instead the men and women in uniform worked so hard to show the public that the army is pro-people. The SPLA in 1984 introduced a Manifesto which governed its day-to-day operations and the daily activities of each soldier. The implementation of the Manifesto’s penalty code by the SPLA court martial enabled the army address criminal offences and human rights violation effectively.

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Most Recent Press Release

No Dismissal of SPLA Deputy Commander-In-Chief