Stephen Par Kuol, a senior member of the SPLM-IO led by detained First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, has rejected his suspension from the party, calling it the joke of the year.
On Monday morning, Oyet Nathaniel, the Deputy Chairman of the party, suspended Stephen Par who the SPLM-IO nominated as the national peacebuilding minister and three others on charges of creating disunity in the party and working to replace Dr. Machar at the instigation of and with the help of President Salva Kiir and his SPLM Party.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday morning, Par referred to his suspension as unilateral and a violation of the party’s regulations. He said that the suspension did not follow the right procedure, and instead accused Oyet of rebelling against the government.
“We call this a joke of the year! Nathaniel [Oyet] does not have constitutional powers to do that, he is doing it because he fled, and he does not control anything now. The problem is that he is hearing that we are organizing a National Liberation Council (NLC) meeting,” he explained. “NLC is the second largest organ of the party between sessions of the convention and the extraordinary convention. We are doing this because we are going to delink ourselves from them; they are rebels, and we are with the government.”
“The group inside here (Juba), our position is very clear, we call for the release of our chairman, we call for a ceasefire and the peace process to get back on track, and that is the position of everybody, including the chairman. Oyet is not the chairman, I am not the chairman,” Par added.
The minister insisted that they had not committed any misconduct to warrant being suspended.
“I can be dismissed only through a disciplinary process in the political bureau. We do not work like this, and our conduct, internal rules, regulations, and code of conduct are very clear. There is no misconduct, and even if there was misconduct, what you need to do first is investigation,” he charged. “You do not go straight to what he [Oyet] is saying, and where is he anyway? Is he in Juba? You do not run to the bush to start agitating things that are not happening because there is no document or any declaration that we have made yet to dismiss Riek Machar.”
“Even if we do that, it will be unconstitutional because the only organs of the party that can remove anybody from his position are the convention carried out by the Political Bureau and the National Liberation Council, and that is the thing we are doing,” Minister Par added.
He accused Oyet and other members of the party of defecting in violation of the party’s constitution.
“Oyet has actually defected from the SPLM/IO because he left the chairman, the NLC, and the Political Bureau here. If you talk to him, ask him how many members of the Political Bureau are with him in the bushes of South Sudan. What he is doing now is in violation of all our documents, the internal rules and regulations, the code of conduct, the constitution, and the manifesto. He violated all with what he has done, by running away from here [Juba], he also violated the laws of South Sudan,” he stated. “There is no internal wrangle in the SPLM-IO. What is happening is that we have people who defected and have vanished into the bush. The rest of us are still working together, and anything you see we are doing is procedural within our constitutional rules and regulations.”
For his part, the Acting Chairperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM/IO), Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, confirmed to this publication that he suspended four senior party officials, accusing them of working behind the scenes with President Kiir’s SPLM party to overthrow SPLM-IO Chairman and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar.
In a letter seen by Radio Tamazuj, Oyet suspended Stephen Par Kuol, Agok Makur Kur, Ding Lam, and Luke Thompson Thoan, who are all members of the National Liberation Council of the SPLM-IO. They are accused of working to overthrow Dr. Machar.
According to Oyet, the four officials shall appear before a disciplinary committee that shall be constituted in accordance with the basic documents of the SPLM-IO.
Observers and the citizenry are concerned that the tensions might lead to a split in the ranks of the SPLM-IO, as it happened in July 2016 when then SPLM-IO chief negotiator Taban Deng ousted Machar and was appointed by Kiir as first vice president after war erupted in Juba in July 2016.
On Sunday, SPLM-IO spokesperson Pal Mai said the party had mandated Oyei to act in place of Machar until the latter is released.
Due to the ongoing tensions in Juba several senior members of the SPLM-IO went into hiding and others fled to neighboring countries for safety. Last week, a group of SPLM-IO officials held a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Juba to advance dialogue over the current deadlock and the detention of Machar. Mai described the meeting as being unauthorized by the SPLM-IO leadership.
