South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
A member of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) on Monday asked for the Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Gen. Chol Thon Balok, to be summoned before the House to answer queries on what sparked last week’s heavy fighting at the residence of Gen. Akol Koor Kuc, the former Director General of the Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Services.
The MP representing Fangak County in Jonglei State on the SPLM party ticket, Mary Nyirieka, made the request to summon the defense minister to explain to the House on the shootings which left two soldiers and two civilians killed.
“We need to ask for the Minister of Defense to come and tell us exactly who commanded those soldiers, if the Chief of Defense Forces said he did not issue the order,” she said.
Nirieka disclosed that the Spokesperson of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) Maj. Gen Lul Ruai Koang, said recently that neither the Chief of Defense Forces, Gen. Santino Deng Wol nor the Commander-in-Chief of the SSPDF Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit ordered soldiers to exchange fire with body guards of Gen. Koor.
“According to the information of the army spokesman, they did not order the army to shoot and the Chief of Defense Forces was not aware,” Nyirieka said.
She said that President Kiir assured the country on several occasions that the country would not return to war under his watch. Nyirieka blamed some powerful people she did not name of provoking the situation with the aim to dragging the country back to war.
“And the president put it very clearly that he doesn’t want to take this nation to war again. People are willing to take us back to the war,” Nyirieka said.
For his part, Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, First Deputy Speaker of TNLA urged the concerned parliamentary committees to follow up on the progress of the investigation around the incident.
“On behalf of the parliament, we also would like to offer our sincere condolences to the lives that were lost in this incident,” Pierino said.
He said that parliament regrets the shootings on Thursday night at the residence of the ex-spy chief in Thongpiny suburb of Juba.
“We advise the law enforcement agencies to adhere to their code of conduct and to adhere to the constitution, and to adhere to their command and control so that we don’t see such incidents again,” Pierino added.
According to army sources, the two civilians were crushed to death by armored personnel carriers of which one was a student of the University of Juba and a lawyer who were not named. Two other civilians were shot and wounded in the crossfire.
