Lt.-Gen Akol Koor Kuc, chief of the Internal Security Bureau | File picture

The Director General of the Internal Security Bureau has said it’s always a bad commander who creates a bad soldier in the armed forces.

Gen. Akol Koor says once a commander is not professional and well-mannered there is no way a soldier will be good and professional.

Speaking on Tuesday in Rumameer County in Abyei Administrative area where the fact finding committee on Annet is, Akol Koor says soldiers are turning into criminals due to the failure of the commanding officers to control them.

“After independence, we left what we have been fighting for and we started doing what is not right,” said Gen. Akol Koor.

“No soldier is bad, the bad person is the commander, once a commander is bad definitely he or she will have a bad soldier.”

He stated that no soldier has been well-behaved right after the country gained its independence.

President Salva Kiir has in the past accused the police and other organized forces of being behind night robberies in Juba and other towns in the country.

Some officers have been accused and charged of serious crimes related to killing, rape and destruction of civilian properties in areas like Yei.

The then minister of defense, Kuol Manyang described some members of the organized forces as weak-hearted for using their weapons to terrorize civilians.

But some observers believe that some soldiers commit night crimes because of their poor living conditions as the government offers them little salary that is paid irregularly, sometimes after nearly six months.