A group of South Sudan’s former SPLM-G10 faction who have rejoined Salva Kiir’s ruling party faction yesterday visited the tomb of the party founder John Garang de Mabior, just a day after Pagan Amum was reinstated by General Salva Kiir as SPLM secretary-general.
Visiting the site of the tomb in Juba, Amum was accompanied by former cabinet minister Deng Alor, former finance minister Kosti Manibe, and former justice minister John Luk. All four were detained on orders of President Salva Kiir in December 2013 and released into exile later in January, with the exception of Amum who was put on trial for treason.
Amum was released from detention in April 2014 after charges were dropped and he fled to Kenya.
Speaking after his visit to Garang’s tomb today, Amum said, “Today we are here by the site of our founding father and our visionary leader Dr John Garang de Mabior to rededicate ourselves to the realization of the dream he fought for together with all the martyrs who gave their lives in pursuit of this dream.”
“We rededicate ourselves and make our promise with the reunification of the SPLM and correction of our mistakes we have been making including deviation and moving away from the vision that he articulated and having lost the direction,” he added.
Amum’s colleague Deng Alor has earlier described the return of the group to Juba as an initiative to salvage what remains of SPLM. “It is a historical movement, a historical party. It can’t be allowed to die,” he said on 1 June.