Top Machar diplomat resigns, regrets ‘mistake’ to join SPLM-IO

JUBA – A senior diplomat allied to the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, has resigned from his position and from the main armed opposition group, saying he regrets his decision to join the Machar-led group from the beginning.

Pasquale Clement Batali, the SPLM-IO deputy chairperson for foreign relations committee, said in a statement extended to Sudans Post that Machar has ran the group “single-handedly” without crucial political roadmap that he says is always needed to ran a political organization.

“Let me take this opportunity to tender my complete resignation from the SPLM-10 movement and desist from its membership and all the activities of the movement with immediate effect,” Pasquale said in the statement he extended to Sudans Post.

The former opposition diplomat said he has raised questions about how the main armed opposition group is ran, only to fall on deep hears, saying several reports from his role as the group’s deputy diplomat chief has never been used of by Machar.

“Right from the time I officially joined the movement in 2016, I have raised to your leadership on several counts my displeasures with the ways some important policy matters in the movement were being handled,” he said.

“After my appointment as the Deputy Chairperson for Foreign Relations Committee, you assigned me on many important classified missions whose reports and recommendations I did submit to you, yet you never heeded to those reports and never took any action,” he added.

The opposition official said he cannot continue under Machar’s style of leadership, saying the main armed opposition group is being ran single-handed, a claim that has previously raised by the group’s secretary-general Tingo Peter who resigned last week.

“I cannot fully comprehend your style of leadership at all. I did predict all what is happening to you in Juba,” he said.

“The SPLM-IO is being run single handedly as a one man show whereby major decisions are taken by yourself without consultations. Since you went to Juba, you decided to sideline all the political organs of the movement, the Political bureau, the national Liberation Council and various specialized Committees of the movement. You only consult close confidants,” he added.

The opposition diplomat said when he “discussed with you the recommendations and proposals for the SPLM-I0 to go for peace renegotiations in Addis Ababa, you adamantly rejected and said the SPLM-IO should not go for renegotiation while you are still under house arrest negotiations on very weak position which I have termed Tactical Surrender on the side of the SPLM-10, and those who were opposed to the idea of renegotiations of the peace agreement hurriedly came in and surrounded you just to gain favor and positions.”

“While you were under House arrest in South Africa, myself and some colleagues were the ones carrying out the diplomatic works, with your release, the foreign relations committee became redundant. Madam Angelina took over the functions of the committee despite the fact that she Is the chair lady of the defense and security committee.

“You appointed an illiterate governor for Western Equatoria ignoring my advice and recommendations to you. This was utterly done without consulting the members as if we the senior members of the SPLM-10 from WES do not exist.

“You encouraged opportunists and new comers who joined the movement in Juba in 2019, to work against senior members and trying to discourage and humiliate them. A clear example is the case of Lakes and Western Equatoria states respectively.

“You always conduct very long and tedious community meetings whose resolutions have never been documented nor implemented.

“The movement has never come out with a Blue Print Document on how fundamental reforms would be carried out or implemented and subsequently address the maladies afflicting South Sudan.

“There has never been strategic plans and road map of how to capture political power in the country. I really regret for having been a member of the SPLM-10 under your leadership and I think this was the greatest political blunder and mistake I have ever committed in my life.”