Press release
By Col. William Gatjiath Deng
Spokesperso, SPLA-IO
March 19, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —– On more than one occasion now, the brutal and ruthless Juba regime, through Ateny Wek Ateny as Press Secretary of the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) at the Jieng (J-1) and Michael Makwei Lueth as another Spokesman of the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) in the JCE regime’s executive branch has been desperately and shamelessly seeking regional attention to its designation of the nationally and internationally recognised SPLA-IO as a “negative force/terrorist organisation”, as clearly indicated in the March 13, 2017 Juba regime press on the two Indian oil we captured during the fighting in and around Guelguk, Upper Nile.
The purpose of this negative campaign has been and still is to discredit the SPLA-IO and tarnish its good national, regional and international image. It is of course also to perpetuate the war, continue provoking the region, pestering the United Nations and the international community, and tilting South Sudan for a regional war, following the last July 2016 attempt to kill SPLM/A-IO Chairman and Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon and the total collapse of the August 2015 Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS).
Indeed, throughout the ongoing war and especially since the July 2016 Juba-engineered fighting, the Juba regime has clearly shown to the world that it is neither interested in ending the war, nor promoting peace, security and stability in South Sudan and the region.
While continuing to terrorize the civilian population, displace non-Dinka areas, deny non-Dinka communities humanitarian access, loot and burn non-Dinka homes and villages, gang rape non-Dinka young girls and women even as old as 70 years within South Sudan, the Juba regime has subsequently extended its terrorist activities and practices to the neighbouring countries and the region where the regime national security agents have so far managed to kidnap more than six senior SPLM/A-IO officials, including the Press Secretary of the SPLM/A-IO Chairman and Commander-in-in-Chief Mr James Gatdet Dak.
The same Juba regime has also introduced, involved and advanced the chemical weapon form of terrorism in its underlying struggle to commit mass murder against the non-Dinka by recently attempting to poison water tanks or sources serving thousands of non-Dinka South Sudanese in one of the UNHCR-administered refugee camps in northern Uganda.
Furthermore, the autocratic and authoritarian Juba regime has completely suppressed press freedom and the only newspapers are either those owned by the JCE elements supportive of the ongoing massacres and human rights abuses in South Sudan, or are under Juba regime supervision before publication. In addition, the President himself has become another notorious African ritualist and has been using his private Luri Ranch for sacrificing young men and women kidnapped from their homes, villages or on the streets of Juba, Yei, Torit, Wau or Makal (Malakal) by the Mathiang Anyor government forces.
In particular, besides the well-documented December 2013 mass massacre in and around Juba, the JCE regime in Juba and Mr Michael Makwei Lueth instigated and masterminded the April 2014 attack and killing of more than 100 non-Dinka South Sudanese sheltering in the UNMISS Protection Sites in Bor, Bentiu and Makal. The Juba regime even celebrated the raping by its Mathiang Anyor government forces of numerous international humanitarian aid works and other Western female diplomats during the July 2016 outbreak of fighting Juba.
This month alone, the same ruthless Juba regime congratulated Mathiang Anyor government forces for the execution of Priests and the burning of Kubi, Agoro, Ameyu (Omeo) and Loming in Eastern Equatoria, while encouraging them to continue raping women, looting and burning villages, and killing any non-Dinka perceived or believed to be opposed to the autocratic and authoritarian JCE policies in South Sudan. As we write, the Juba regime national security forces are looking for and targeting those politicians and clergies who refused to, or did not attend the said National Day of Prayers.
While the Juba regime has indeed portrayed and designated itself as a first-class terrorist in Africa and the world, the SPLA-IO has undoubtedly shown to the South Sudanese, the African Union and indeed the world what it means to be a responsible and disciplined Movement. For instance, and to mention but few, in 2014 we caught and released a Kenyan airplane that was carrying Juba regime security agents in Nasir; in April and August 2015, we also apprehended and released two other foreign planes carrying Juba regime security personnel, officials and war-mobilization teams in Ayod and Yuai respectively; in September 2015, we further apprehended and freed an airplane in Rupkotni, Unity State; in November (2016) we as well apprehended and released without harm another plane in which the Commissioner of Panyijiar County and his body guards; among others.
In the case of Mr Ambross Edward and Mr Muggy Vijaya Boopathy whom we captured during the fighting in and around Guelguk in Northern Upper Nile, the SPLA-IO will only negotiate their release with their national governments, since we had repeatedly warned them, all national and international oil companies and other oil workers never to set foot on any of the oilfields until after a peaceful and a negotiated resolution to the current conflict in South Sudan has been found and fighting stopped.
