Machar should be prosecuted for killing Nuer for ‘personal gains’ – Gen. Bapiny

JUBA — South Sudan opposition leader and deputy speaker of the country’s Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA) General Bapiny Manytuil Wijang has accused First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny of standing behind the killing of the Nuer people in December 2013 saying Machar should be blamed for the death of the Nuer people.

General Bapiny who is also the chairman of South Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SSLM/A) and head of the Bul Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation claimed — despite regional findings which stated the opposite — that Machar had staged a failed coup to oust President Salva Kiir Mayardit from power and then mobilized the Nuer to fight the Dinka plunging the country into a civil war.

“South Sudan plunged into conflicts in December 2013, when the incumbent First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny attempted to overthrow the democratically elected President of the Republic of South Sudan, H.E Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit,” Bapiny said.

“The failed Coup De’tat resulted in a bloody civil war that has cost the lives of an estimated 300,000 civilians in a nation of 12.3 million people. The war has displaced over 2.7 million people and 200,000 seeking shelter at UN peacekeeping bases in South Sudan. Over 2 million South Sudanese have fled as refugees to neighbouring countries such as Uganda, Sudan and Kenya,” he added.

Bapiny said Machar should be held accountable for the death of Nuer citizens during the period between 1991 and 2016 in which Nuer citizens were targeted for his actions as a political leader.

“Dr. Riek Machar deserves to be blamed for misleading the Nuer Community for decades since 1991, 1997, 2013 and 2016. Yes, It is normal to fail twice but you can’t repeat it the third and fourth time without evaluating what went wrong or what needs to be corrected? Now the SPLM/A – IO is disintegrating due to countless defections of Nuer officers who are dissatisfied with the way Dr Riek Machar run the movement as his personal property,” he said.

“The appointment of his family members to the top positions in the R-TGONU is a clear indication that he was only using the Nuer community for his benefit,” he continued.

Machar and Kiir were involved in a power wrangle in 2013 and that power struggle spread to the army with those supporting Machar being dislodged from Juba.

A militia group acting on orders of senior government and military officials went door to door killing thousands of unarmed Nuer civilians in Juba sparking mutinies among the SPLA triggering civil war.

In April 2014, military and political leaders who deserted Juba as results of the Juba massacre elected Machar as leader of what would be an SPLM-IO which then fought the government got seven years.