Army, IO told to punish defectors to discourage change of allegiances

South Sudan President Salva Kiir (L) leaves after attending the commemoration of Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) Day at the SPLA headquarters in Juba, South Sudan, on May 18, 2017, during the commemoration of SPLA Day.[Photo via Getty Images]

JUBA – A Juba-based South Sudanese activist is calling on the leadership of South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, (SSPDF) and the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO to punish individuals who changes allegiance from one side to another in order to discourage further defections.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an exclusive interview on Thursday, Jame David Kolok, the executive director for Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance, warned that the on-going political and military defections by parties to the Revitalized Unity Government could impede the implementation of peace agreement.

“The South Sudan People’s Defense Forces should come-out with a very clear regulations that anybody that would want to be defecting or leaving from one group to the other, should be apprehended, and charge in the military court because this would send a clear message, but if they continue to accommodate some individuals that are running from SPLA-IO or SSPDF, that by itself is really a very big problem,” Kolok said.

The activist blamed the continuing clashes between SSPDF and SPLA-IO on the government’s failure to quickly implement the security arrangement.

“The solution to these kinds of defections lay with the unification process. If the forces are unified, then nobody will have a reason for defecting anywhere because the forces will be one. But now the delay of the unification process plus the fact that the government is not formed yet at sub-national levels make people feel that when the defect, they are going to get positions,” Kolok explained.

The outspoken activist called on the unity government to speed up the process of unification of forces, and formation of the government to avoid further defections in the name of looking for positions whether politicians or military.

In  March, former SPLA-IO deputy chief of staff for administration, General James Koang Chuol, along with three other generals abandoned SPLM-IO leader and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and joined President Salva Kiir’s camp. 

Similarly in September, Gen. Moses Lokujo, who was a senior military commander in the SPLA-IO, switched sides by pledging allegiance to the SSPDF under President Salva Kiir. The former opposition commander has since been attacking SPLA-IO positions in several parts of Central Equatorial state.