FULUS PANDA

Luac Akook Yieu ( Khorfulus)

Lt. Gen. George Athor Deng Dut Anyang, SPLA former Deputy Chief of staff autobiography.

George Athor Deng, was born in (1962) in Wunlang, Atar upper Nile. He attended Adong primary school (1970-1976), Malakal junior school (1977-1979), and Kassala secondary school (1980-1982) he successful passed his Sudan school certificate examination and gained a place at the University of Cairo,s Khartoum branch (1982-1983).

However, as a political activist in Khartoum, in June 1983, George Athor abandoned his University studies and joined the SPLM/A rebellion of South Sudan. He received his military training in Bonga and was commissioned as a Lance corporal in the SPLA Jamus battalion in 1983. In January 1984, in recognition of his educational attainment and performance in the field, George Athor was promoted to first Lieutenant in the SPLA and took part in the attack on Jekou. He also fought Anya nya ll forces in Abuteng. Lt. Gen George Athor then commanded Sobat battalion.

He soon shifted to command Abushok battalion, George Athor led his forces from the front and hence he was wounded in May 1987 at Nyaliklik. He was promoted to the rank of captain and command Mazulum battalion (1987-1989). SPLA forces under his command took part in the BSC I's Northern sector. He was one of the SPLA officers who successfully resisted/contained the Nasir coup of August 1991, in which three senior SPLA commanders, including his direct commander, broke away from the movement. In April 1992, with a small force he managed to dislodge SPLA (Nasir) from Baliet. His military success in the area provided for an SPLM (mainstream) presence in the area. Consequently, he was wounded fighting the breakaway SPLA forces at Thep Ngol in 1993. He continued to resist the Nasir forces until 1996, when he was transferred to Equatoria as the commander of Shondok battalion.

Shondok battalion attempted to capture Yei and Lainya in 1996, Cdr George Athor was subsequently transferred to Panrieng, the present Ruweng Administrative Area where he engaged the SAF and successfully disrupted the oil exploitation drilling in Panthou (Higlig) as one of the most successful SPLA commanders, he was later transferred to first front (Upper Nile) as division commander. Cdr George Athor served in Upper Nile for two years from (2003-2005).

After the CPA he was appointed as Maj. Gen in the SPLA and confirmed as Jamus Division overall commander (2005-2007). Later on he was director for administration at SPLA GHQs Bilpam (2007-2008), with his distinguished experience in the SPLA, the first vice president of the Republic, president of GOSS, and commander in chief of the SPLA promoted George Athor to lieutenant Gen in the SPLA and appointed him as deputy Chief of staff for political and moral orientation (2008-2010).

however, Gen George Athor resigned his senior position in the SPLA and successfully contested for the governorship of Jonglei in April 2010 and he was believed to have won the general election but the gubernatorial election for the independent candidate was intentionally rigged in favor of the SPLM favorite candidate (Kuol Manyang).

Despite his alleged and unconfirmed winning against Governor Kuol Manyang, his political rivals including the former Interior Minister of South Sudan then in 2010, started to politically implicated late Lt. Gen George Athor Deng in unfounded rebellion as a conspiracy theory to provoke and lure him into a belligerent action against the SPLA after he was forced to retire to his father's homestead in Khorflus. The former South Sudan Interior Minister initiated this conspiracy theory and pushed for the SPLA to act against George Athor Deng in his indigenous homestead which prompted him and his armed guards to repell the attack and started to dig into trenches for the self-defense fight to protect themselves against the SPLA forces which was unleashed to go on an operational offensive for no apparent reason other than arresting him for no justification.

It was this skirmish between Athor's guards and SPLA in Khorflus which led him to declare the self-defense war which actually evolved to the rebellion, and in the bush he founded his South Sudanese Democratic movement (SSDM), the SSDM forces established in the countryside in Jonglei in 2010. Although he reached a ceasefire agreement with the GOSS for the peaceful conduct of the referendum in January 2011, serious hostilities resumed between his forces and the SPLA thereafter, he later reached a truce with the government in November 2011. And following the truce, the mediation was launched in Nairobi, Kenya where the first assassination attempt was made against him, fortunately he survived it narrowly with the assistance of the Sudan Embassy in Nairobi. The assassins were hired none other than the Government of South Sudan to eliminate him in Nairobi Kenya but it was intelligently foiled by Sudan Embassy and Athor was transited out of Kenya safely to Khartoum, Sudan. Two weeks later after he survived an assassination attempt, he was once again contacted and lured in by the M7 of Uganda to visit him in Kampala, Uganda for the peace deal between his SSDM/A and RSS. Athor was advised by his senior intelligence officers and military High Command never to heed any peace mediation by M7 in Kampala unless it is scheduled to take place in a neutral venue. Despite all these intelligence briefings and advices from his senior military officers and supporters, he insisted that he must meets M7 in Kampala. And as a matter of urgency, he made it to Kampala by himself as a result of the devilish bewitchment or black magic performed against him by either his enemies and M7, and indeed he was lured into Kampala, and after he landed and reported himself to the Ugandan security forces, his hotel was besieged or engulfed and the South Sudan Security Forces which were already deployed in South Sudan Embassy to pick him and lynch him alive with brutal and barbaric torturing and mistreatment were rushed in to arrest him and he was killed under inhuman circumstance along with his senior diplomatic aid. He was tortured and killed inhumanely under the watch of the South Sudan senior ministers from the National Security and Interior Ministry as well as senior personnels from South Sudan Embassy who were working in Kampala then. The names of the senior ministers and embassy personnels are withheld due to the confidentiality and sensitivity of the matter.

Therefore, Lt. Gen. George Athor was not killed in an alleged military clash with the SPLA forces in Morobo county as was allegedly reported on the South Sudan Television Network and some websites. Matter of fact, Athor was assassinated inside Kampala Uganda in the hands of South Sudan Government assassins under the witnesses of senior officials and embassy personnels. Thus, Athor was never in Morobo County with his forces and he would not had been killed in cold blood or assassinated should he had had his forces in Morobo County of Equatoria. There is no way he would be in Kampala, Uganda and then later ended up in Morobo County of RSS allegedly with his forces. This is an awkward and ludicrous propaganda. Every single South Sudanese understands that Lt. Gen Athor Deng was lured to Kampala Uganda and he was arrested with the trap and help of Ugandan Security Forces and was assassinated in cold blood by South Sudanese officials, and later his body was transported to Nimule, South Sudan where the SPLA Force was staged strategically with the mock deployment in the battlefield as if there was an incoming enemy , and guns were shot into the air to dramatize the mock military action when the land cruiser carrying his co**se arrived at the Nimule Border, RSS where his body was received by the SPLA Forces. Lt. General George Athor Deng was assassinated on December 19th, 2011 in Kampala, Uganda and his dead body was then ferried to Juba , South Sudan via Nimule, RSS. It is crystal clear that George Athor was not an easy military strategist who could be simply killed in a normal military operation as is falsely alleged to have taken place in Morobo. Otherwise, he would had been killed then in Khorflus where he had been fighting the ten thousand SPLA forces for one years and he had never been defeated and killed in action. His full name is George Athor Deng Dut. The author is biased and politically motivated and misled by the RSS Assassination Conspiracy Theory which then murdered Athor in Kampala Uganda. The blood of this heroic freedom fighter and SPLA famous military strategist shall continues to haunt his bloody enemies who are still alive today and celebrating his befallen life. Long live his mighty name in the history of South Sudan and SPLA who believes in his military agility, resilience and strategy.

The Author is the SPLA Soldier who was physically deployed and served in the SPLA Brigade who received his dead body in the land cruiser from Kampala Uganda in Dec 2011. The name is withheld due to classified file.