A member of South Sudan’s national parliament representing Ikotos in Eastern Equatoria has joined the rebellion against Salva Kiir, head of the SPLM faction based in Juba and South Sudan’s president.

Henry Dilah Odwar, who recently disappeared from Juba, appeared on Saturday at a press conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where he announced his allegiance to the armed opposition group SPLM-IO.

“Today, I have joined the Opposition to demand for President Salva Kiir to step down,” he said in a press statement.

The parliamentarian accused Kiir of disrespecting the legislature and judiciary and seeking to become “president for life.” He also cited personal vices and “lack of seriousness in the current IGAD led peace talks.”

Odwar further compared Kiir to a number of fallen dictators including Adolf Hitler, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Idi Amin. He accused the president of involvement in “ethnic cleansing: massacre of ethnic Nuer” – a reference to the mass killings carried out in Juba in December 2013. 

“History is replete with the type of President Kiir,” he said, implying that the South Sudanese leader can only avoid a similar fate by stepping down.

However, the defector’s statement did not explain why he decided to join the SPLM-IO faction led by Riek Machar, other than to claim that the faction is a “national movement” that enjoys widespread support.

Odwar has been a member of the ruling party representing Eastern Equatoria State’s constituency 9 – a region that includes the Imatong Mountains near the Ugandan border.

Odwar last month helped lead a legislative effort that resulted in the defeat of a security bill backed by Salva Kiir, owing to lack of quorum. The bill generated opposition from within the ruling SPLM-Juba faction, including most of the Equatorian caucus in parliament.

Kiir’s security bill would have required National Security Service officers to take an oath of loyalty before him personally and would have legalized the already prevalent practice of warrantless incommunicado detentions. 

Photo: Henry Odwar (left) with other recent defectors from SPLM-Juba, 22 Nov. 2014

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