General Gabriel Gatwech Chan, a commander popularly known as “Tang-Ginye,” says he does not expect the agreement signed by SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar to lead to peace in South Sudan.
In remarks critical of Machar on Sunday, Tang-Ginye warned of the possibility of renewed conflict because of the inadequacy of the peace deal.
Speaking by telephone from Sudan’s capital Khartoum on the eve of Machar’s expected return to the South Sudanese capital Juba after more than two years in exile, Tang-Ginye criticized the peace deal signed in August last year as non-comprehensive.
He says that his dissident group, which broke from Machar’s SPLM-IO the same month that the peace deal was signed, considers that the deal fails to address the roots of the crisis.
“The peace deal that they made contains things that are not good… after a little while there will again be problems from Juba there.”
Tang-Ginye called on the South Sudanese government to enter into a new dialogue with the dissident group led by Changson Chang, a former government minister and defector from Machar’s group, who is based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Changson’s group, known as the FDP/SSAF, recently named Tang-Ginye as its provisional chief of staff. The group has not clarified whether or where it has forces on the ground, if any.
Tang-Ginye himself hails from the northwest of Jonglei and previously belonged to the Anyanya, Anyanya-2, SSDF and the Sudan Armed Forces. He was a long-time foe of the SPLA and only briefly reconciled with the SPLA during the CPA period.
“We will not return to problems again. We are staying. We also want peace, but we want a good peace,” he said in an interview with Radio Tamazuj.
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Changson’s FDP says no longer affiliated to Gen. Gatdet (16 April)