JUBA – Former South Sudan army commander who decided to join General Paul Malong Awan last week, Stephen Buay Rolnyang, has spoken out in an exclusive interview with Sudans Post about his decision and how that would change the political landscape in the world’s youngest country.
Below is the transcript of the interview conducted on Monday, April 10, 2021.
General Stephen Buay Rolnyang welcome to the interview and thank you for talking to Sudans Post.
Answer: Welcome and thank you very much for having me.
Q2: Let’s get to it right away. You have been in the SPLA (now the SSPDF) since you joined the movement against the Khartoum government. Following your release from detention in 2019, you also pledged to remain loyal to the government under President Salva Kiir, last week you joined the South Sudan United Front under General Paul Malong Awan, what went wrong and why you decided to take up arms against the government at this particular time?
Answer: I decided to join the rebellion because I am disappointed at the way the NCP group led by Tut Gatluak has infiltrated the system of the country, sideling the real members of the SPLM who liberated this country. It is like they’ve hijacked the whole system of the country. They have always manipulated the presidency in making changes in the system. As you know, I have been home [since my release] for three years hoping that there would be changes in the system and remove these NCP members and give them positions that are far from the presidency. So, that is the cause that prompted me to join the rebellion. I have been there in Juba for three years sitting in my house.
Q2: And why do you think the president would support NCP members against his own comrades who fought alongside him during the war?
Answer: I cannot blame the president because this group is very carny. They always use money and use a lot of things that can confuse the President and this is how they make the president to listen to them thinking that they are the one working for him and accusing other members of the SPLM of being biased toward or against the president.
Q3: Before we go into why you were detained in 2018, let’s get to know something; do you have forces anywhere in the country because you have given the oil companies to shut down and vacate areas in seven days?
Answer: [Laughed] My friend, why do you think I shouldn’t have forces? Why I shouldn’t have forces in the country? I have commanded forces in the country for many years since I was in the bush. Do you think I should not have even a single soldier that can follow me? I have forces my friend it is just a matter of time you will hear from where you are or later on.
Q4: General Paul Malong who you have joined has been accused by SSOMA of not willing to fight in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and that he wants to focus the war around Juba and Central Equatoria state. So why do you prefer to start with Unity state? Why don’t you fight in Central Equatoria because it where the president and the seat of the government is based.
Answer: My friend you start from where you have support. My support main comes from Unity state, in Upper Nile even Juba where I commanded forces because you cannot start from nowhere. You always start from where you know you can get support from the civil population even, that is why I choose to [start with Unity state] and don’t you imagine that I may have forces somewhere else? The second reason that I choose to start there is that oilfields are in Bentiu and Paloich and my first target is oilfields, it is not a matter of starting anywhere, I can start anywhere but what is important is the oilfields.
Q5: Why were you detained in 2018 and who was behind the conspiracy?
Answer: It is the same group, the same NCP; I can call it the National Congress Party Liberation Movement (NCPLM) because they are the one liberating within the SPLM. These people are the one who arrested me in 2016 and 2018 respectively simply because they want to get rid of me like they did to General Peter Gatdet in Khartoum when the poisoned him and died in 2019. The root causes are many, but these people join the government of South Sudan in 2011 and 2013 respectively and I was the one fighting them when I was commanding the forces in Western Upper Nile for the SPLA. These clashes continued until today and they don’t want to see me in any assignment. They want me dead by all means. They don’t want to see me progressing. So that is the problem, these are the people who arrested me in 2016 and in 2018 and finally they influenced the court and the court decided on their behalf according to what they told the court. So they succeeded, demoted me and removed me from the SSPDF.
Q6: General Stephen, we are aware that when you were transferred to Unity State to command the 4th Infantry division the security improved in the area, and because of this, we don’t understand any point why the president would target you?
Answer: My friend the president has been poisoned. The mind of the president has been poisoned by these people. And the president likes to work with this group for reasons best known to him.
Q7: You have just spoken of the death of General Peter Gatdet Yaka, that he was poisoned. But the South Sudan United Movement that was led by Gatdet didn’t say that, how do you know that he was poisoned and do you have any supporting evidence?
Answer: I know my friend I have a lot of information about his death. His group knows about this but they couldn’t and wouldn’t say because they choose to be silent. They don’t want to say this publicly but inside their houses, they talk about it and you can hear that they say it. They can’t speak in the streets because they are afraid they will end up like me, the same thing that happened to me will happen to them.
Q8: Following the decision to strip you of your rank and the subsequent removal from army service, did you felt like betrayed by an institution that you have served for most of your life?
Answer: Yes of course I felt betrayed, but who should I blame while the whole system of the government is under the NCP? They are liberating from within the SPLM and nobody can talk about it. Even my dismissal was not signed by the President. In any army, if a soldier is to be removed from the army, it is always the president who has power to do so by signing into the paper. In my case as a general, who do you think can dismiss me apart from the president? But there is no even a single paper signed by the president for my dismissal from the army. It was only the legal advisor in the office of the president who coordinated with [former army chief General] Jok Riak and Tutkew that the confirmation of the court should be done without the confirmation of the president. Which army in the world that can do such a thing? So I think it is a betrayal and just more than a betrayal.
Q9: Why did you choose to join General Paul Malong Awan particularly and Malong has been accused by holdout opposition groups of being an extension of the regime in Juba, how confidant are you that he is fighting the same cause?
Answer: Let me clarify this point to you: our people are ignorant of what had happened in 2013, Malong didn’t kill anybody frankly speaking. When people were killed, Malong was not the [army] chief of staff, the chief of staff was General James Hoth. Malong was a governor and people were already killed when he was appointed as chief of staff, and he even rescued many Nuer from being killed, so people should not talk of Malong on the streets. Even when Malong was fighting Riek Machar at Jebel Kujur hill, it was order of the president. How come a chief of staff wage war without a prior approval from the president or from the parliament? Instead, Malong rescued many Nuer when he became a chief of staff because when Nuer were killed, Malong was not the chief of staff, so this should be clear to the people.
Coming to the reasons why I joined Malong, I choose to join Malong to show the unity of the people. I want the Nuer and Dinka and other tribes to unite for a national consensus and unity of purpose. I am tired of tribal movements that you are a Nuer you can have your movement, you are a Dinka you have your own movement, from Equatoria you can have you own movement, this one will not take use anywhere. So, we need a national agenda, a national consensus to have one vision. It is not good to divide the people and if we continue to divide ourselves on tribal lines, I think the National Congress Party will hang on to power and will disintegrate this country further, they will continue to be near the president and destroy our country.
Q10: So you think it is President Salva Kiir who killed the Nuer in December 2013?
Answer: I cannot say that it is President Salva Kiir even after I joined the rebellion because I was an insider. Salva Kiir did not give orders to kill his people but there are individuals because of weak institutions in the country. If there are weak institutions in the country, everybody can take laws into his own hands killing anybody, killing any Nuer thinking that killing the Nuer will solve the problem. So, it is not the president because Salva did not give order to kill the Nuers. I was there I was commanding a division, if it was there, if there were orders to kill the Nuer, I would have known it. So, it was individual Dinkas who thought that Nuer should be killed for reasons best known to them.
Q11: There is a peace agreement being implemented by President Salva Kiir, Dr. Riek Machar and other opposition groups, do you think this peace is not relevant, do you think this peace will not change anything?
Answer: My friend there is no peace in Juba, because the revitalized peace agreement is already dead and there is no peace in the country and the opposition leaders who are there in Juba are just like political detainees. They are no allowed even to be guarded by their own forces. They are being protected by the forces of the government, of the [SPLM-] IG. The NCP has destroyed this peace agreement. The implementation of the peace agreement is destroyed by this group.
Q12: But the peace agreement was negotiated in Khartoum under the NCP led by Omar al Bashir, how come the same NCP work to destroy its own peace?
Answer: I don’t mean the NCP of Omar el Bashir, I mean this NCP of Tutkew because they have already departed from that NCP of Omar al Bashir, but these people in Juba who are calling themselves NCP within the SPLM are the one are led by Tutkew and Tutkew is using the money meant for the implementation of the peace agreement to bribe people in Juba and in Khartoum. I mean the NCP in Khartoum, I mean the NCP in Juba which is the new one led by Tutkew not the one led by Omar al Bashir.
Q13: If this is the why you feel about the peace agreement, what do you say to the regional community, the IGAD which mediated the revitalized peace agreement, and the friends of South Sudan such as the US, Norway, UK and the EU countries?
Answer: My message to the international community is that led them rescue the people of South Sudan by changing the system in the country and to change this peace agreement whether this peace is on the right track or not before this country get collapsed because it is not me alone who will leave and defect, many people will defect. It is a matter time you will see other defections will take place. Peace is the hope of everybody in this country, but if there is no peace what do you think people can do? Because the revitalized peace agreement is not being implemented, the security arrangement is not being implemented. People are fighting here and there around Juba, Kajo-keji, Maban and elsewhere and the opposition leader are silent and have no power to say anything because they are under detention.
The opposition forces are fighting with government forces and their leaders are silent in Juba. So it is high time for the regional community to come in and check properly ‘now what is wrong, why peace is not being implemented as stipulated in the agreement?’
Q14: Before we conclude, this interview, do you have any message for the people of South Sudan and members of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces?
Answer: My message is very clear to the people of South Sudan and particularly the SSPDF they should come out and join the rebellion because this one will not take us anywhere it will to solve their problem and this is now the only chance during the NCP system. They have to come out, join us and then fight the system because there are no other alternatives otherwise they will die poor without development in the country and the problem is that our people do not know their rights. They cannot protest against the government. They cannot do that because they don’t know their rights.
Q15: General Stephen Buay Rolnyang, Secretary of Defense for South Sudan United Front/Army, thank you for talking to Sudans Post.
Answer: Welcome!
What bush years were these low lives where fighting in?