Garang’s son says peace process turned into lucrative business, looting of resources

JUBA – South Sudan’s former Deputy Minister of Interior, Mabior Garang De Mabior, claimed on Tuesday that the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, approach of “give peace a chance” has turned out to be a euphemism for looting national wealth.

“After coming to Juba to ‘give peace a chance’ as such-which turned out to be a euphemism for looting our national wealth, the IO ministers and members of parliament have built houses overnight in Juba. Meanwhile, our civil population continues to languish in abject poverty,” Mabior said in a statement on his Facebook page.

The former chairperson of the SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public Relations claimed that traditional elites in opposition do not care about the welfare and prosperity of the people of South Sudan.

“These traditional elite in opposition do not care about the welfare and prosperity of our people. Not after abandoning our forces in the bush then trying to use a mercenary force hired with newly looted oil money,” Mabior said.

“They attacked the same forces which rescue the First Vice President (Riek Machar) in 2013 and again in 2016. They even went as far as attempting to assassinate their former chief of staff (Gen. Simon Gatwech) who ended up deposing us, the politicians,” Mabior added.

The son of founder of the SPLM, Dr. John Garang De Mabior alleged that the SPLM-IO in Juba does not have the moral authority to claim the security arrangements have not been implemented and that elections should not be conducted.

“It is the SPLM-IO in Juba that is responsible for frustrating the implementation of the security arrangement. They are now trying to use the concept of peaceful transfer of power as their next populist slogan in long line of slogans to confuse Junubeen,” he said.

“The SPLM-IO in Juba is not interested in peace and stability in our land. They know they are not popular and elections will send them home. This is why today, they are afraid of elections, it only has value as far as it can be used as populist slogan.”

“The barbaric status quo is our country communal war is their political economy. They can’t survive without this mischief. There is now an opportunity for implementation of security arrangements in the Kit-Gwang declaration. Let us organize and mobilize to send these unpopular misleaders home in 2023,” he added.