October 31, 2019(Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan Army Spokesman, Lul Ruai Kong, who was recently promoted to the rank of Major General, calls on his senior commander, Gen. Malaak Ayuen to change his degrading attitude after Gen. Malaak publicly harassed women journalists in front of other army generals at the Army’s Headquarters in Bilpham.
To cover the ongoing Military Command Council Conference in Bilpham the army spokesman invited media houses including Nyamilepedia to go and cover the conference under the theme “Working Together for the Implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement”; however, the journalists came under physical harassment by Major General Malaak Ayuen.
Gen. Malaak runs a media program for the SSPDF as the Director of Information and Public Relations and he is considered a journalist; however, Malaak used more than necessary force that include pushing and beating up of journalists;
Background of the Incident
According to the journalists, who attended the conference, at least five journalists set up in front of the podium to be able to cover the conference; however, Maj. Gen. Malaak had a different idea.
Malaak wanted the journalists to move to the back of the hall which he wanted to be done in a blink of an eye.
When the journalists took what he thought was a lot of time, Malaak took the law into his own hands, dismantled the tripods (camera’s stands) and started pushing and beating up the journalists.
Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Kong’s Response.
Responding to the incident, the army spokesman called the incident “regrettable”.
“It’s regrettable that some of our journalists were mishandled there in a way they should not have been handled,” Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai said.
The Spokesman called on his boss to polish up his attitude adding that some serious transformations are needed.
“There is need for transformation and transformation should start with the attitude. There is need for some of us at the national level to work on our attitudes so that we handle our civilians with a lot decent manner.” Lul Said.
At the time of this writing, Gen. Malaak was yet to respond and whether he will apologize to the media or he will address the issue with his junior colleague, Lul Ruai, for speaking out on the media is yet to be heard.
