June 2nd 2018 (Nyamilepedia) –Â SPLA former Chief of Staffs Gen. Paul Malong Awan said he think South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir Mayardiit, has lost contact with reality after the later told the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE), a group Dinka intellectuals serving advisory role for the South Sudanese leader, that he has refused the participation of Gen. Paul Malong in the ongoing South Sudan peace talks in the neighboring Ethiopia saying Malong want war.
“His desire to impede the peace process has now seen two stages of engraved manifestations. Recently, he talked of incentives and just through his recent most statement he is holding me responsible for crimes he committed. I think Kiir at this stage has lost contact with the reality,” Malong said.
Malong, in a statement extended to the Nyamilepedia, added that Kiir’s self-imposed role to decide who to participate in the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) would be interpreted as a warrant for the continuation of hostilities.
“Moreover, his [Kiir] desire to be the admitting authority for participants in the peace process is culpable and thus would rightly be interpreted as a warrant for continuity of hostilities considering the fact that a plaintiff or defendant can’t be the authority that would issue the verdict for the case in question,” he said.
Malong stressed that President Kiir is a party to the conflict and should be should be treated like the rest of the South Sudanese parties negotiating peace talks with the government.
“Since Kiir is a party to the conflict, he ought to be a participant like any other participant with no special consideration in decision-making process and especially on who should and who should not,” he said.
Malong added that Kiir is not for peace claiming that the South Sudanese leader is daring for more suffering he said directed at the South Sudanese people.
The rebel leader added that he and his movement are ready for whatever option available to Kiir saying the South Sudanese President will regret his most desirable choice: war.
“Whichever way, we shall go by Kiir’s choice and we are not mincing words by saying so. If Kiir thinks war is the best direction that he is designing for South Sudan United Front/Army to take, the he will live to regret that desire,” the powerful army chief threatened.
Gen. Malong remained closest allies to the South Sudanese leader until Kiir removed him in May 2017 reportedly after the country’s head of the National Security Services Gen. Akol Kor advised Kiir to remove the powerful army chief after allegedly uncovering a coup plan by Malong who later denied the allegation.
Malong then fled Juba in protest of the dismissal heading towards his hometown Aweil but was forcefully returned to the capital Juba from Yirol and was subsequently put under house arrest by the South Sudanese leader until the Jieng Council of Elders successfully advised Kiir to release him on health grounds in November 2017.
Malong went to Nairobi and few days later the government made public audio tapes portraying Malong ordering his loyalists in the SPLA to attack Juba and Wau but Malong denied and accused the national security of falsely tarnishing his image.
However, in March 2018, Malong formed his own movement accusing president Salva Kiir of looting the country to Bankruptcy.
