THE CASE AGAINST BRIG. GEN. GATWEC JOAK, GEN. TANGINYE AND MAJ. GEN. MABOR DHOL

The case against these three men or lack thereof is becoming a burden and contrary to the rule of the land (The Constitution of South Sudan). The people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for separation from Sudan because they were exhausted and tired of being ill-treated generation after generation after generation in the hand of their government. It was surely a dream to finally break the chains of struggle in July of last year. I wonder if the dream and the jubilations are turning into nightmare especially for the people of Jonglie and Upper Nile state.  Today South Sudanese are still going through the same ill-treatments or worse long after the independence in the hand of their government.

 Back to the case, the prosecuting officer (s) have a duty to charge anyone deem to be in violation of the law (constitution). These three men have done nothing wrong and that is why SPLA  did not, cannot, and will not charge them with any crimes. The old saying still ring true “it is not that easy to create something out of nothing”. These men have been in detention since last year without being charge with any crimes which make their detention illegal in any country beside South Sudan.  The fight that landed these men in detention which also claimed the lives of fifty seven people was found to be accidental according to the General in charge of SPLA forces in Kaldak. At the time, General Gatluak Gai explained that “they (SPLA) were presenting a letter from President Salva Kiir to Gabriel Tanginya, asking him to report to the capital, somebody unknown shot a bullet in the outskirts of the area and that caused the confusion which erupted into clashes between the two forces. He said both Gabriel Tanginya and the SPLA commander Gatwech Gai were not aware of what was happening”.  Many people say they should be cover by the presidential pardon, but the presidential pardon only cover those who rebelled against the government, they did not. The reason why they were in Kaldak was because their forces were being integrated to the SPLA forces not to fight SPLA. There is no reason what so ever for these men to still be in detention.

The leaders of our county will always have hard times convincing the general public to be law abiding citizens when they clearly bends the law in whichever way they wants. This case is a clear violation of our constitution and the leaders of our county must do the right thing and release these men without any more delay or charge them and prosecute them for whatever crimes that the SPLA feel they have violated. Their release is long overdue and it is the time for this nightmare to be over for us.

Michael Gatwec Joak