Dr. Lam Akol, The SPLM-DC Party chairman, Arrives in Juba
Sunday, 02 October 2011
The Sudan People Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM/DC) party chairman, Dr Lam Akol Ajawin, has returned to South Sudan.
The visibly excited Akol, told a press conference that he was happy to meet President Salva Kiir in Nairobi last week, and said his party is ready to cooperate with government to build the nation.
Ajawin was received at Juba airport by the party’s Vice chairman Mark Atem and SPLM-DC leaders from Jonglei, Lakes, Western Bahr El-Ghazal and Central Equatoria states.
Lam refuted allegations that his party, the SPLM/DC is sponsoring militias.
Exiled South Sudan opposition leader returns home
The leader of South Sudan’s largest opposition party returned home Sunday after months in exile since the euphoric independence of the country in July.
Dr Lam Akol, the chairman of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-Democratic Change (SPLM-DC), a breakaway faction of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, allegedly feared arrest by the security of the infant nation.
He has been accused of having close links with the rebel group headed by former SPLA renegade general George Athor Deng, who picked up arms against the government after losing a gubernatorial race for the Jonglei state last year.
Mr Philip Lasuba, who was netted by the army last month after mobilising 94 youths in Eastern Equatoria state, claimed that Dr Akol was the chairman of the rebels and that Athor was his deputy and chief director of operations. Dr Akol has denied the allegations.
Dr Akol ’s return marks a new dawn of political freedom in a country grappling to overcome the wrath of repressiveness against which it fought for decades, his party officials said.
Political space
“This is the starting of working together of the SPLM with the SPLMDC and other political parties,” acting SPLM-DC Secretary General Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec, said.
“With the wisdom of the President [Salva Kiir] coming with other parties, we will have a lot of change of political space in this country,” Mr Onyoti said.
Since it broke away in 2009, the SPLMDC has been a bitter rival of SPLM. The latest time both came together was in October last year as the SPLM rallied all parties behind the referendum
http://www.africareview.com/News/Exiled+South+Sudan+leader+returns+home/-/979180/1246930/-/g1ma0a/-/
South Sudan opposition leader pledges unconditional cooperation
October 2, 2011 (JUBA) – Lam Akol Ajawin, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) – South Sudan’s official opposition political party – on Sunday pledged unconditional cooperation with the government and president Salva Kiir Mayardit in order to foster unity and development of the new nation.
- SPLM-DC’s leader Lam Akol (L) and South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir (R) Source (http://paanluelwel2011.wordpress.com/)
Speaking to journalists at Juba International Airport upon arrival from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Sunday, he said he was “happy” to be back in the capital of the new republic of South Sudan.
Akol’s return comes after he met with Kiir in Nairobi to discuss political issues that were blocking his return to the country from Khartoum.
Since Akol split from the SPLM in 2009 to form his own party, SPLM-DC has been banned and accused of having an illegal militia loyal to it. However, despite claiming its agents and candidates were harassed, SPLM-DC became the largest opposition party after elections in 2010.
Despite South Sudan becoming independent in July Akol has maintained an office in Khartoum the Sudanese capital. He told journalists that the issues that had kept him from returning were “not big” and that was “grateful” that Kiir had understood his concerns.
The SPLM and SPLM-DC have spent much of the last two years attempting to tarnish each others image, which reportedly had led to deep mistrust among leaders and followers of the two parties.
However Akol said on Sunday that he and Kiir “agreed that as new nation, in building it we need to cooperate, we need to work together, we need to have consensus on how we approach the challenges that are facing our country.”
“Nobody however small is not important in this exercise (building the nation). This is the understanding we have and therefore I hope that as I come as the leader of the SPLM-DC, we will, as opposition party, cooperates with the government and especially the president”, said Akol.
Akol argued that opposition parties were an important part of democracies and said some people were under the “misconception that the opposition and the government don’t come together”.
“Democracy calls for opposition and government” to act as a mirror and hold the executive to account, he said.
Elections in South Sudan in 2010 saw an overwhelming vote establishing the SPLM as the ruling party. The SPLM had governed South Sudan as an autonomous region of Sudan since a 2005 peace deal.
Akol said SPLM-DC would be ready to extend a hand of cooperation to the government and the president in order to “precede with the dreams and ambitions, aspirations” of South Sudan, which for decades has suffered due to conflict.
“It is our duty as sons and daughters of this nation to build it so that our people could get what they want so that prosperity could record”, said Akol
General Alfred Lado Gore, minister of environment in the central government who was at Juba International Airport to greet Akol told Sudan Tribune he appreciated his return.
“This is the only way forward. I welcome Dr. Lam home because politics is best played while one is able to see what is being done. We want those who will keep reminding the party in power all the time through constructive and not destructive politics”, said Gore.
Gore said that constructive opposition and allowing communities and diverse groups to be heard was how democracy is conducted around the world and South Sudan should not be an exception. “There is no point we can endanger lives of our people simply because we are not agreeing on certain agenda,” added Gore.
The main source of hostility and bickering originates from the 2010 elections when Akol stood against Kiir for the presidency of South Sudan. Akol and the SPLM-DC felt that the results had been tampered with in favour of the SPLM and claimed they had won far more votes and seats in parliament.
Onyoti Adigo, the leader of the SPLM-DC in the National Assembly commended the reconciliation initiative.
“It is a great joy and honour for what president of the South Sudan did by meeting with our chairman. The meeting was very cordial and friendly”, said Adigo claiming that Akol and president Kiir were great friends.
“Their meeting in Nairobi was very encouraging indeed that was why they met without any third power or third person to bring them together”, he said
The senior SPLM-DC member said the invitation to meet from president Kiir was accepted immediately by Akol. Adigo maintained that Akol received no assurances before his return.
He said the main things the SPLM-DC leader wants to achieve is the achievement of the unity of the people of South Sudan in order to build the nation. “That is number one thing which we think it is very important. The second thing is how we deliver service to our community because they are with great expectations”, he said.
Defection of senior SPLM-DC members
Adigo accused individual members with the South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) of instilling fear by threatening some members of the SPLM-DC.
He said that other politicians who moved back to the SPLM was gain a position in the government. The SPLM congratulated the defectors and “described them as nationalists”, Adigo said.
(ST)
http://www.sudantribune.com/South-Sudan-opposition-leader,40304
Lam Akol brushes aside speculations of returning to SPLM’s fold
October 1, 2011 (NAIROBI) – South Sudan’s renegade opposition leader Lam Akol has dismissed as “rubbish” speculations that his meeting last week with the country’s president Salva Kiir was a prelude to his return to the mainstream Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
- South Sudan’s opposition Leader Lam Akol (www.aufaitmaroc.com)
Akol, who is the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Democratic Change (SPLM-DC), a splinter faction of the ruling SPLM in South Sudan, held a meeting on Thursday, 29 September, with South Sudan’s president and SPLM’s chairman Salva Kiir in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The meeting, which surprised observers given the bitter animosity that characterized relations between the two parties, was followed by remarks in which Kiir announced that Akol would soon be seen in South Sudan’s capital Juba to rejoin the domestic political arena in the newly independent country on the ticket of his party.
In an interview with Sudan Tribune from Nairobi on Friday, 30 September, Akol said that he did not seek to involve any foreign interlocutors in brokering his meeting with Kiir.
He revealed that the genesis of the meeting dates back to March this year when he sent a letter to Kiir who later met with a delegation of the SPLM-DC in June.
Akol said that his meeting with Kiir had mainly focused on issues related to opening the political space in the south and providing all political parties with guarantees to operate.
According to the SPLM-DC leader, his party has had difficulties operating in the south.
In November 2009, in the run-up to April’s general elections, Kiir ordered authorities in South Sudan, then a semi-autonomous region, to allow all political parties to operate freely except the SPLM-DC.
Reacting to a question on whether he might end up rejoining the mainstream SPLM from which he split to form the SPLM-DC in June 2009, Akol termed such speculations as “rubbish,” adding that this would not happen because the SPLM-DC was the main opposition party.
Akol also sought to discredit reports of his party’s implosion, saying those who recently defected were bought by the SPLM, in reference to the party’s former secretary-general Sandra Bona Malwal and her group who declared their defection in September this year.
He said that his party aims to play a leading role in the opposition in the post-independence South, stressing the importance of national unity in order to tackle the challenges facing the budding nation.
“We look at opposition as a mean to keep the government on check. We are a mirror through which the government can see its success and failures. In that respect, we need to help the president succeed” he said.
(ST)
http://www.sudantribune.com/Lam-Akol-brushes-aside,40306
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