BREAKING: Mabior Garang resigns from top SPLM-IO position to protest ‘fake’ peace

NAIROBI – The SPLM-IO chairperson of information committee and ex-deputy minister of interior, Mabior Garang de’Mabior, is saying that he is resigning from his position in protest to the sticky implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

“In reference to the above subject, I am writing this memo to inform your Comradeship of my intention to resign from my position of Chairperson for Information and Public Relations,” Mabior said in a memo addressed to SPLM-IO chairman Dr. Riek Machar Teny.

Mabior’s resignation came after several rumors last week that he has resigned from the main armed opposition group.

But the senior member of the SPLM-IO denied in an interview on Wednesday that he has resigned from the group, accusing unnamed others within the group and the regime in Juba of being behind the rumors.

Mabior said he has been with the intention to resign since 2014, when differences between him and General Lul Ruai Koang deepened, triggering Lul’s defection to President Salva Kiir’s side.

“As your senior Comradeship is aware, I have been meaning to resign since 2014 when I faced continued sabotage from the leadership, starting with the well documented conspiracy of Gen. Lul Ruai. However, I was advised by countless Comrades – who have since resigned themselves – not to resign, as my contribution to the struggle was invaluable,” Mabior said.

“I listened to the advice of these Comrades because it was valid. We therefore continued to carry out our duties diligently, even during the times we faced the greatest danger to our very lives. Undoubtedly, what we have done is part of a historical record – no need to mention the details here,” he wrote in teh resignation letter.

Mabior said he cannot continue to serve in the group, given the ongoing ‘fake’ implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

He said there has never been a credible peace process beginning with the High-level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) that eventually led to the Khartoum peace talks which later on brought about the revitalized peace agreement providing Machar’s appointment, once again, as the country’s first vice president.

“In light of the fake implementation of peace going on in Juba and our leadership’s claim that peace is being implemented and the situation is improving, I cannot with a clear conscience continue to serve in a constitutional position in the Movement,” he said.

“Since the High Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) ended and the peace process moved to Khartoum, there has been no credible process. It was dead on arrival – as it were. This is the reason some groups, now negotiating in Rome, refused to sign the Agreement,” he added, describing Machar’s return to Juba as “a surrender in disguise.”

He said some members of the SPLM-IO have been compromised by the regime and wanted to return to Juba for positions very quickly which he said has resulted in the ongoing confusion with the revitalized peace agreement.

“That the peace we are pretending to implement in Juba is mischief, has been clear to many of us from the start. We even suspected that some of our Comrades in the National Pre-transition Committee (NPTC) had been compromised by the regime,” he said.

“These Comrades succeeded in silencing the National Committee for Information and Public Relations and labeled anyone who had opposing views as peace spoilers. There has been no credible information from the Movement, with the military Spokesman being the only one making any real statements,” he added.

Mabior argued that should he continue, the public would  “wonder what is happening and why I am holding a position in their name yet I am not doing their work. I am unable to explain to the people why we are quiet as our citizens are being murdered in Tonj by their own army during peace time. We are quiet in the face of rampant intercommunal violence evidently supported by the government.”

“We have failed to even bring the lack of implementation to the attention of the public. Instead, we are lying to the people saying that “peace is moving on well,” he said.

He further said he would remain as an ordinary member of the group “until such a time the Movement has returned to the business of the peoples’ struggle. I will be ready to take up any assignment when there is call for it.”