By Tereza Jeremiah Chuei
The first deputy Speaker in the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly Nathaniel Oyet Pierino has argued that the 2013 civil war was not a coup as alleged by majority but it’s caused by differences of ideas.
Oyet who is the deputy chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) claimed that they and their counterparts who have remained as SPLM-IG disagreed simply because they (IO) were looking differently at how they should take the Country forward and position the public funds to provide services to the citizens.
Speaking during an inaugural event for the launch of SPLM-IO secretariat in Juba, Oyet questioned the reason that led to the South Sudanese to take up arms against the then government of Khartoum back then.
“Dear people, what was the reason for us to fight Khartoum government, if corruption is in the government, differentiation is there, marginalization is there, I see that this is Nuer, that is Bari, Acholi, and that is Dinka, this same practice made us to rethink about the future of the people of South Sudan and the new Republic,” he said.
The first deputy speaker however reiterated that the reason that led to the 2013 civil war was differences in ideas and not otherwise.
“This happen in 2013, there are people who say that what happened in 2013 was that people wanted to grab power…. That is a lie, it’s not true, the things that separated us with our colleagues in SPLM that brought today IO and leaving the others as IG, it’s because our ideas were different, how we manage the Country to go forward and to give our civilians and citizens services, …our Country to have schools, hospitals, roads, we have different ideas,” he exclaimed.
“Public funds, if it’s coming from oil, gold or fish or farming or from wherever, it must be that they should be positioned in providing services for the public,” he noted.
The 2013 war allegedly displaced millions South Sudanese from their homes to either refugee camps in the neighboring countries or as Internally Displaced Persons IDPs under UN run protection of civilians sites across the country.
The Office of the President however earlier this year released a declassified national security report compiled by a British lawyer that disclosed the root cause of the 2013 war that broke out in Juba and spread to the rest of the country.
The report alleged that the 2013 war came about as an attempt by former rebel leader and now chairman of the SPLM-IO party Dr. Riek Machar plotting to oust President Salva Kiir through a coup.