SPLM-IO has “failed” and is not fighting for change – Mabior Garang

April 11, 2020 News, Newsbeat

Mabior Garang de Mabior, the SPLM/A(IO) Chairman of Information and Public Relations(Photo credit: Mabior’s mobile office)

April 11, 2020 (SSNN) — South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by the the country’s first vice president Dr. Riek Machar Teny and as such could not achieve its objectives, Mabior Garang, a senior member of the group said.

“The success or failure of any Movement is determined by how it has achieved its objectives. The root cause of the current crisis in our country – and the outbreak of civil war – was the charge made by a group of SPLM Leaders, opposed to the new political dispensation which arose after 2005,” Mabior who is also the country’s deputy minister of interior said.

“I am sad to say, we have failed and to claim we are still fighting for change is mischief!” Mabior added.

The son of the founder of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM/A) Dr. John Garang said the opposition group which has fought the government in Juba for around six (6) years has always been divided.

“The opposition politics which arose after the regime’s violent response – documented by the African Union Comission of Inquiry on South Sudan – was a hopelessly divided one. The opposition has been so divided throughout the course of the war, with the various groups conspiring with the regime against the others at different times,” he said.

He said the “failure of the various opposition groups to present a united front against the power elite who preside over the unbearable status quo in our country, has ultimately resulted in our un-negotiated surrender. The stated objective of the opposition groups was, “to institute radical reforms, to bring about fundamental change in our country and basically to deliver the promise of the liberation struggle which gave us a flag.”

Mabior who is also the group’s chairperson of national committee for information however admitted that the SPLM-IO “could not wage the struggle alone, after the SSOA and FDs surrendered to the regime over one year ago.”

“They have been voting with the regime and have even given the regime the power to chose their leaders. Coupled with the international diplomatic pressure mounted on the SPLM/SPLA (IO), the Movement was left with no options but to succumb to the illusion of peace. Any responsible citizen who has read the Agreement, knows that not a single provision of the Agreement has been implemented.”