Wikileaks: Discontent with SPLM’s Kiir revealed Article Comments (15) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Toby Collins September 4, 2011 (LONDON) – At a meeting between senior members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and US officials in 2006 concerns were raised about the future of the party and the leadership of current president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (Reuters) In the meeting Yasir Arman, a leading figure in the SPLM and now secretary general of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N), called upon the then US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Jendayi Frazer to persuade Kiir to continue along the pro-unity path which his predecessor, John Garang had begun upon before his sudden death ikn August 2005. The revelations came with the release of numerous leaked US cables by Wikileaks – an anti-secrecy organisation which had been releasing classified information on a variety of subjects since 2006. In January 2006 Frazer met with Arman; Malik Agar - chairman of the SPLM-N; and Deng Alor - the former foreign minister in the Republic of Sudan. At the time, the Government of National Unity (GoNU), was formed with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which marked the end of the civil war between North and South Sudan in 2005. The GNU was made up of members of South Sudan’s SPLM and North Sudan’s National Congress Party (NCP). The senior SPLM leaders said that they thought Kiir to be the only man capable of leading the ex-rebel group, but that his views did not represent those of the mainstream. They also expressed concern over the actions of the NCP to divide and neuter the SPLM leadership. Frazer responded by saying that the US is interested in the transformation of Sudan’s governance. Alor suggested to the US contingent that Kiir had inherited absolute power but was not capable of “handling it”, as the cable puts it. He said that Kiir was concerned that those aligned to Garang would not support his leadership in the SPLM. The ex-foreign minister blamed the disharmony in the SPLM on the advice given to Kiir by Lam Akol, a former high ranking member of the SPLA and founder of the opposition party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement -Democratic Change; and Bona Malwal, former advisor of President of Sudan Omer Hassan al Bashir. According to the cable, Agar, Arman and Alor asked for US assistance, as well as from other African states in the matter of “sensitizing Kiir to the need for greater SPLM coherence”. Arman suggested that a result of the Garang-centric SPLA which Kiir inherited after Garang’s suspicious death in 2005, was that Kiir felt the need to put his people into important roles to secure his position. In 2004 the SPLA nearly split with Kiir’s faction including Malwal and Akol. Arman said that Kiir’s decision to bolster his position with loyalists in key positions played into the hands of the NCP. Arman said shortly after taking leadership of the SPLM, that the former head of North Sudan’s security services, Salah Gosh passed on documents to Kiir suggesting to him that there was an internal SPLM plot against him and that he was not favoured by the US. Alor alleged that Gosh himself entered a meeting where Kiir was in talks with various African leaders to discern allegiances. He said that the NCP blamed the SPLM for Bashir’s failure to attain the African Union chairmanship. Arman called upon Frazer to persuade Kiir to follow Garang’s pro-unity stance, suggesting South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia could be useful allies in this. Those at the meeting expressed their concerns about the future of the SPLM as a national party. They said the NCP was worried about the level of registration for the SPLM in North Sudan, which was not being capitalised upon as Kiir refused go give the SPLM organisers in North Sudan the necessary funding. Fraser responded by stating that it was thought in the US that Kiir was aligning himself with domestic, popular pro-secession opinion and “transformation and the weakening of the NCP are jeopardized by an ineffective SPLM” reads the cable. Also discussed at the meeting was the issue of Darfur. The UN estimates 2.8 million have been displaced by the conflict which began in 2003. Arman described a union between Eritrean, Chadian and Darfuri rebels, headed by one time partner of Bashir, Hassan al-Turabi, bent upon the destabilisation of the NCP. Arman suggested Garang’s word be followed and the 7,000 SPLA troops currently in East Sudan work in the Joint Integrated Units (JIU) to disarm militias and the Janjaweed. JIUs are made up of troops from North and South Sudan. There have been many peace conferences since this meeting but a unified agreement to lay down arms in Darfur remains illusive. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
