The Jieng (Dinka) Council of elders, a group of self-appointed tribal leaders renewed its position, saying it stands with the government in opposition to deployment of regional protection force with the mandate to take charge of key installations, including Juba international airport.
“When you deploy foreign forces to key installations to perform the functions of the national institutions like the police, the security and the army, then you have effectively given up on sovereignty which no country has ever done. The work of the regional protection is supposed to be supplementary to the work of the national institutions”, said Joshua Dau, a leading member of the Jieng Council of Elders when reached on Saturday.
He linked the deployment of the regional protection force with the mandate to take charge of key infrastructure to a political strategy to implement the regime change agenda.
“This is strategy to advance their regime change objective, which some countries using some of our people have been advocating. But as the council, we this is not going to work. Let South Sudan decides for themselves. Their destiny should not be decided by others. Supporting such deployment would encourage short to the presidency, which is unacceptable”, said Dau.
Dau cited the intervention in Libya and Iraq; saying foreign solutions don’t address grievances.
“Foreign solutions do not address grievances. They fail and this is what to happen here because they do not know the language, the history, and you do not understand the context of the issues they want to address. Look at the US-led invasion of Iraq which was supposed to usher in a new age of democracy for the country and overthrow a brutal and unstable dictator. Unfortunately, it triggered more than a decade of sectarian strife in Iraq”, he explained.
He said the power vacuum, turmoil and the intervention of foreign powers – international and regional – created fertile ground for militant groups to flourish and emboldened the neighbouring countries to take advantage of the situation at the expense of Iraqis.
File photo: leader of the Jieng Council of Elders Ambrose Riiny at University of Juba in September 2015 (Credit: Daniel Manyuon)