By Nichola Dominic Mandil

December 22, 2006 - The Former Vice President of the Republic of Sudan , Retired Army General, Joseph Lagu Yanga has joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and urged all Southern political parties to get dissolved and merged with the SPLM.

In an interview with Sudan Radio Service and Sudan Mirror at his residence in Khartoum South (December 11), General Lagu who was the Commander-in-Chief of the First Southern Liberation Movement or the First Southern Mutiny popularly known as Anyanya One Movement and the then President of High Executive Council for Southern Region said he has joined the SPLA and its military wing the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) because the SPLM is the continuation of Southern Liberation Movement.

He said his alliance with the SPLM/SPLA is not that he is seeking job, but he wants to avail himself to the leadership of the SPLM/SPLA in an advisory capacity so that they can benefit from the experience he has. The Veteran politician well-known among Southern Sudanese as “Makungu”, Mr. Lagu denied any differences with the former Leader of SPLM/SPLA, Late Dr. John Garang, saying that there were some issues related to the future of the South and of the SPLM that made some Southern leaders disagreed with the late Garang.

Lagu urged his own party the South Sudan Democratic Forum and all Southern Political parties to get dissolved and merge with the SPLM in order to have one strong political party in the South and work hard to claim the leadership of the entire Sudan .

He alleged that most parties in the north are Islamic oriented and lack national characteristics. Lagu revealed that at the time of the formation of the South Sudan Democratic Forum, they (members of the Forum) accepted the SPLA as their army. He said that there was no need for the Democratic Forum to exist as an independent party from the SPLM.

The Makungu said the SPLM is a home-based party with its root in the South, but it is for all the marginalized people of the Sudan including the people from Nuba Mountains, Darfur, Southern Blue Nile the East as well as people from far north who all feel at home in their the SPLM.

Lagu, said the people of the South should prepare themselves for the leadership role in the New Sudan because the centre of gravity of leadership of the country is moving towards the South headed by the SPLM, saying that all marginalized people of Sudan should look at the South with “optimism” for a better country devoid of sectarianism and religious indifference.