By Mamer Abraham
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Secretary-General, Peter Lam has called for immediate deployment of the necessary unified forces.
During a swearing-in ceremony of SPLM Cadres, on Wednesday, Lam said that the deployment could be accomplished using the agreed-upon middle echelon of the unified command structure.
“I am sure that deployment can still be done at the mid-command level, which has already been agreed. And the senior commanders can still be deployed later,” both noted.
Mr. Lam said SPLM-IG had waited for five months for the SPLA-IO to submit the list of their commanders, but they delayed.
He claimed that the delay in submitting the names of the SPLM-IO commanders was a ploy for the next extension of the roadmap of implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
“These prerequisites include the deployment of forces, unified forces; as you all know, we have been waiting for nearly five months for the IO leadership to submit the names of their cadres to be appointed, but to no avail, and the strategy is that they want to delay and they want to extend the roadmap,” he added.
Last month, Puok Both Baluang, acting press secretary in First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar’s office, stated that the delay in deployment of forces was due to parties’ disagreement on the middle echelon of the unified command.
Puok said their list of commanders was ready, but they were only waiting for the three principals of the peace agreement, President Salva Kiir, FVP Dr. Riek Machar Teny, and Vice President for Service Delivery Cluster Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, to agree.
Puok accused the SPLM of making unilateral allocations of positions that were not agreed to by the parties themselves.
“The SSPDF made a unilateral allocation of the structure, which was rejected by the SPLM-IO because it must be discussed and agreed upon by all parties,” Puok argued.
He underlined that the President created positions such as deputy director for national security and director in the police structure for SSPDF, which were not acceptable to the parties.
Puok added that the President also created a directorate in the police structure, which was not agreed upon, noting these pending issues must be discussed for the full-force structure to be made.
His comments came after National Minister for Information, Michael Makuei, said the forces must be deployed even though the lists were not submitted by SPLM-IO.
Makuei argued that the food was ready, but only the lists not submitted by Machar’s party were dragging the process along.