‘Detainee’ Machar should not chair upcoming SPLM-IO conference – Duer Tut

KHARTOUM – South Sudan’s main armed opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, who is under regional confinement in Juba despite his February 2020 appointment as South Sudan’s First Vice President, should not chair the upcoming National Conference, former SPLM-IO governor of Sobat state and member of the SPLM-IO National Liberation Council, Duer Tut Duer, said Tuesday.

Duer who is currently in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and who has been a critic of Machar for his ‘premature’ return to Juba earlier this year argued in an interview that Machar should not chair any meeting of the group because he is a “detainee.”

“The conference is not genuine and not constitutional,” Duer said of the conference which is scheduled for December 2020. “Dr. Riek Machar is in detention in Juba. A detainee cannot be given the freedom and the privilege to call this conference in his lieu of detention.”

Asked if he the meeting should be boycotted by all, Duer said he is not asking for all members of the group, “they are free to go, I only ask all those from various categories who are advocating for removal of Riek Machar from the Chairmanship of the SPLM-IO to boycott this conference and wait for the convention which will take place in 2021, under new leadership.”

The senior opposition official who is believed to be the leader of an internal dissident ‘reformist’ group urged his allies in the SPLM-IO to boycott the convention, saying their return to the capital Juba would mean their detention, and possibly the death of the main armed opposition group saying a detainee in the person of Machar should not chair a meeting of those he said are a ‘free people.’

“Going to Juba for this Conference shall mean that SPLM-IO is an Organization of detainees all members are detainees and Riek Machar is chief detainee,” the outspoken opposition official said. “I know there is nothing impossible in the SPLM-IO, but I am wondering, a detainee to Chair a convention of free people.”

The SPLM-IO was initially set to convene a national conference this week, but due to unannounced changes, the high-level meeting was rescheduled for December.

Duer said he disagreed with the national conference given the flaws he said are associated with the selection of the people needed to attend it saying Machar may have postponed the meeting because of the absence of many important members of the group from the capital because he went alone.

“I am not sure, but On the 6th of November 2020, Riek Machar made it public that, the Conference will take place between the 23rd and the 27th of November 2020, but some members of the SPLM-IO including myself criticized the Nature of the Conference and the Category of the delegates to the conference, because important categories were left out in the table indicating the categories of delegates to the conference,” he said.

“For sure Riek Machar realized his mistake therefore on the 11th of November he added other categories to the delegates, I believe because the majority of the new categories are in remote areas far from Juba, this obliged Riek Machar to shift the date to the 4th of December such that, he will have enough time to transport those new categories from their current positions to Juba,” he added.

He further said he wonders “which Constitution of the SPLM-IO is functioning now, because I know there are three different versions of the SPLM-IO Constitution and they are all operational: The first version is the one drafted by comrade Peter Adwok Nyaba and Comrade Duer Tut Duer between August and October 2014, and passed by Pagak three.

“Dr. Riek was not comfortable with some articles of the constitution after it was passed. He unilaterally decided to amend it so, the Second version was the amendments made to the first version by Nathaniel Oyet, who was assigned by Dr. Riek to do that in the same year 2015.

“When Dr. Riek Machar was not comfortable with the amendments made by Professor Oyet, He (Riek Machar) then assigned comrade Henry Odwar to make the amendments, therefore the third version was the amendments of the first version made by Comrade Henry Odwar.

“These two last versions have never been passed by any SPLM-IO Body up date, but Dr. Riek Machar uses them all it depends which one of the three versions fits his interests that day or help him achieves what he wants for that particular need.”