July 20th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s former SPLA Chief of General Staff, Gen. Paul Malong Awan, has denied claims that he was responsible for killing the Nuer civilians in the nation’s capital in December 2013 saying he was acting upon orders of President Kiir.
In December 2013, Gen. Paul Malong, then governor of the defunct Northern Bhar Al-Ghazal State, was accused of stationing a private militia outside Juba just shortly before the war broke out in the national capital, Juba.
The militia, known as Mathiang Anyor, then was deployed to many Juba neighborhoods inhabited by Nuer civilians in Juba only to commit the killings which later became the Juba massacre.
After his appointment as the Chief of the SPLA, he was seen by many as one of the hardliners preventing President Kiir from seeking peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict as he promised to crash the rebellion within thirty days.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Malong’s spokesman Sunday de’John, said the former SPLA boss did not kill the Nuer nor any single South Sudanese, but was implementing orders for Kiir, the commander-in-chief of the army to execute his work.
“The idea of Gen. Paul Malong having killed the Nuer is not true. As an individual, and as head of South Sudan United Front/Army, Gen. Paul Malong has not killed any single South Sudanese. While in charge of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, he fulfilled the constitutional duties of the Chief of General Staff of the SPLA,” the statement partly read.
