The leader of the rebel outfit South Sudan People’s Movement (SSPM), Gen. Stephen Buay Rolnyang, in a message to commemorate the 43rd Anniversary of the SPLA on Saturday, accused President Salva Kiir and a group of elite politicians who worked with the National Congress Party (NCP) during South Sudan’s liberation struggle of turning the country into a dictatorship.
He charged that independence has been betrayed and citizens’ hopes hijacked.
“Today (Saturday) marks the 43rd anniversary of the historic day when the oppressed people of South Sudan rose in defiance against oppression and marginalization, igniting the flames of resistance that consumed the chains of oppression,” he said. “That struggle claimed the lives of over two million martyrs, displaced millions into exile, and yet, through blood and sacrifice, gave birth to the Republic of South Sudan in 2011. But independence was betrayed. The hopes of our people were hijacked.”
“The promise of liberation was stolen by President Salva Kiir and his clique of NCP, who imposed a dictatorship more brutal, corrupt, and divisive than the oppression once inflicted by Khartoum,” Gen. Buay added.
According to the rebel chief, citizens are languishing in poverty today despite the oil wealth beneath their feet.
“Corruption festers like a plague, institutions are tribalized, civil servants toil without pay, and hunger gnaws at the bellies of millions while a few elites grow fat on stolen riches,” he bemoaned. “Agreements are dishonored, insecurity reigns, and the nation teeters on the brink of disintegration. The dream of freedom has been replaced with the nightmare of tyranny.”
Gen. Buay called upon the South Sudanese masses, workers, farmers, youth, the displaced, veterans of the liberation struggle, to rise once again.
“Just as the SPLA once carried the torch of resistance against foreign oppression, today the SSPM/A and other member organizations under the UPA umbrella carry the banner of the second liberation struggle against domestic tyranny,” he said. “Dictatorship cannot be reformed; it must be dismantled. Corruption cannot be appeased; it must be uprooted. Tribalism cannot be tolerated; it must be destroyed.”
“Let us rise to reclaim the dignity of our people, restore justice, and build a new nation founded on equality, democracy, and unity,” he concluded.
and then