Machar should not be Rewarded with Position of First Vice President – President Kiir
10 min readInterview with President Salva Kiir by The East Africa News Media
“I believe that [the Arusha Accord] laid the foundation people can work from, if all of us are sincere about the well being of South Sudan. But that is not what Dr Machar wants. He wants by all means to be the president and if he cannot get it on the negotiating table, then he has the military option to defeat the government and take over government…Well, I don’t believe in a military option because I have been fighting for many years and I know the difficulties of war. When we were fighting the Sudan government, Dr Machar was in Khartoum after rebelling against Dr John Garang in 1991 — just like he did in 2013. Slaughtering innocent civilians and later on enjoying the support of Khartoum and he was fighting us as the militia of Sudan. But all the same, he was hoping that Khartoum would defeat us, which did not happen. So he decided to surrender fully, signed an agreement with Khartoum and became number four in the hierarchy of the National Congress Party. So he does not understand the dynamics of the war.” President Kiir’s revealing interview with The East Africa Standard
As the president of South Sudan, why do you think your country is facing an internal war only three years after Independence?
The conflict came as a result of personal ambitions of individuals who wanted to take power by illegal means because they were afraid that they would not be elected if they went to the people. They opted for a military coup; when they failed; they transformed themselves into a guerrilla insurgency.
Your close associates have categorically said that Dr Riek Machar can never be your number two. Are you ready to work with Dr Machar without reservation or retribution?
Well, my personal position and that of my party is that Dr Machar should not be the First Vice President. He can come in as number three like what was agreed on in Addis Ababa last August. He wanted the position of prime minster and I accepted despite the fact that we don’t have it in the Constitution.
But when the proposed government structure was put forward by the mediators, they put president, vice president, prime minister, two deputies and then the council of ministers. Dr Machar rejected it because he wanted to be an executive prime minister who will exercise all the powers in the country and the president becomes ceremonial. He was told ‘no, because this was an elected executive president.
If you want to be an executive prime minister or president, then you wait for elections and keep out of this government.’ He wanted to share executive powers with the president and yet these powers were given by the people.
The Arusha Accord of January 21, talked about reforms within SPLM as a way forward. Do you think the fighting could have been avoided if SPLM had initiated internal reforms earlier as had been demanded by Dr Machar’s group?
Talks of internal reforms are not new because we have been talking about reforms in the SPLM even when we were fighting Khartoum. But the problem is that many of the people who are now spearheading the rebellion were not part of the movement and were co-operating with Khartoum. So they know less about SPLM than those of us who stayed.
Do you believe that this final session of the Addis Ababa peace talks will bring a lasting peace?
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development [Igad] can only bring the conflict to an end if it can differentiate between coup plotters and normal conflict. The problem is that Igad is treating the coup plotters as innocent people who simply protested against the government, yet there was nothing wrong with the government.
We did not differ on our objectives or any issue. We were discussing internal issues within the ruling Sudan’s People Liberation Movement (SPLM). So the group which was not contented with whatever was happening in government, because they found themselves out of the government, resorted to violence. But the mediators in Addis Ababa are not taking these issues into account.
Are you saying the issues of the coup and rebellion should be highlighted and not mixed up with the need to stop the fighting and people’s suffering?
The situation in South Sudan is different, for instance, from what happened in Kenya in 2007/2008 where violence was caused by the results of the elections. That is why the region came in to talk about power-sharing between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. This was definitely a conflict over the results of the elections but in our case, it was a coup.
Where in the world is somebody who planned a coup brought in to share power that he wanted to take wholly for himself?
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Govt and rebels adopt hard-line stance as March 5 deadline looms
By FRED OLUOCH
IN SUMMARY
Chronology
- President Slavar Kiir sacked then vice president Riek Machar and the Cabinet in July 2013. An alleged coup attempt on December 15, 2013, led to an open conflict with a faction of SPLM led by Machar accused of instigating the coup.
- Igad called for consultative meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2014, to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. The protagonists sent representatives.
- A meeting in Arusha in 2014 came up with what is called the Arusha Accord in an effort to reunite the three factions of the SPLM.
- On February 1, 2015, the Addis Ababa meeting came up with an agreement calling for the creation of the position of First Vice President, whose nominee will be from SPLM-in-Opposition.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has ruled out any possibility of sharing executive power with Dr Riek Machar, his former deputy who leads the SPLA faction that rebelled against his government.
This could stall the ongoing peace talks in Addis Ababa, mediated by regional leaders under the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Igad, as Dr Machar’s group has declared it will accept nothing short of the First Vice President position
In an exclusive interview with The EastAfrican at State House in Juba, President Kiir said the talks would not succeed if Igad insisted that Dr Machar becomes the First Vice President.
The talks were called to negotiate an agreement after fighting broke out in the country in December 2013. The last agreement signed on February 1, 2015, in Addis Ababa, allowed President Kiir to remain at the helm but created the position of First Vice President, to be occupied by the SPLM-in-Opposition nominee and the Second Vice President slot, to be given to the incumbent Vice President James Wani Iga.
President Kiir also wants Dr Machar’s faction labelled “coup plotters” and treated as such.
“The problem is that Igad is treating the coup plotters as innocent people who simply protested against the government, and yet they are people who wanted power through illegal means,” said President Kiir in reference to the last agreement.
“My personal position and the position of my party is that Dr Machar should not be the First Vice President, but he can come in as number three or the Second Vice President if he wants. After his proposal of executive prime minister was rejected, Dr Machar now wants to be the First Vice President, which we do not accept,” said President Kiir.
However, the SPLM-in-Opposition representative in Kenya, Adel Sandrai, says his group will not accept anything short of the post of the First Vice President, adding that the last agreement of February 1 was very clear that SPLM-in-Opposition will have the position of First Vice President.
“As far as we know, President Kiir caused the war in the country by resisting internal party reforms and purging those who fought with him from the party hierarchy. He has the responsibility to take the lead towards peace, but if he is not interested, then we will meet in the field,” said Mr Sandrai.
After 21 years of civil war, South Sudan got Independence on July 9, 2011. But the delicate inter-ethnic coexistence started shaking in July 2013 when President Kiir sacked Dr Machar as his deputy, together with the entire Cabinet.
The current hardening of positions is likely to complicate the proposed Transitional Government of National Unity, even as the various peace committees continue with consultations in Addis Ababa for a lasting peace agreement before the March 5, 2015 deadline.
The five peace committees are; Transitional Security Arrangement, Governance, Economy, Justice and Humanitarian Affairs; and Leadership Structure.
But the Addis Ababa mediators are running out of time given that the United Nations Security Council on Thursday this week issued a draft notice for sanctions against those committing human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including those involved in targeted killings of civilians, ethnically-targeted violence, extrajudicial killings, rape, and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, recruitment and use of children in conflict.
Signs that the Addis talks may not end well emerged when President Kiir revealed during an interview with The EastAfrican that he was pressured last August to consider the position of the prime minister by three regional leaders — Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn — despite the post not being provided for in the Constitution.
President Kiir explained that when he passed through Nairobi on his way to Washington for the US-Africa Summit in August 2014, he was asked by the three leaders to explain what he thought would be the best way to bring the conflict to an end.
“I told them that if there is to be a solution to this problem, the best thing is to appoint two vice presidents, with the First Vice President going to the incumbent and the second going to Dr Machar. But these leaders did not accept my proposal and instead proposed the position of the prime minster,” he said.
On coming back from Washington, the four again met in Juba and President Kiir says he was forced to give in to the position of the prime minster but asked them to give him a job description of a non-executive prime minister because South Sudan has never had one.
“So the special envoys of the region were given the task of finding out what non-executive prime ministers in Uganda and in Tanzania do. When these functions were brought to the table in later negotiations, Dr Machar rejected them and said that if he is not an executive prime minister, he has to be First Vice President,” said President Kiir.
The general mood among top government officials in Juba is that the Arusha Accord of January 21 that seeks to reunite the three wings of SPLM is a good springboard for peaceful negotiations but the Igad proposal offering the First Vice President position to Dr Machar is just a suggestion that must be renegotiated.
The SPLM government is maintaining a delicate balance between finding a solution as demanded by the international community and ensuring that it does not encourage future rebellions.
SPLM’s secretary-general, Dr Ann Itto, says the party realises that there is a need for give and take but giving Dr Machar the position of vice president is setting a bad precedent and is like rewarding rebellion.
“Many people are saying that it is okay for SPLM to sign an agreement to bring the rebels and former detainees home. But even if we say as SPLM that we want peace that bad, the same SPLM members are asking, ‘is it possible, for instance, for Joseph Kony to go back to Uganda and be appointed the first vice president?” she asked.
But as the SPLM in Government grapples with the way forward in the peace talks. President Kiir on Tuesday issued a decree of blanket amnesty for all those in exile, and all the anti-government forces within the country under Dr Machar.
He argued that the amnesty is in accordance with the Arusha SPLM Party Reunification Agreement and should be respected by all parties.
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President Kiir: Why Machar will not be my Number 2
By NATION REPORTER
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir says he will not accept Dr Riek Machar, who led a rebellion against him, as the first vice-president in the current peace negotiations.
In an exclusive interview with The EastAfrican from State House, Juba, President Kiir said he would only agree to Dr Machar coming in at position three as the second vice-president or non-executive prime minister.
PERSONAL POSITION
“My personal position and the position of my party is that Machar should not be the first-vice president. He can come in as number three as agreed in Addis Ababa in August last year. He wanted the position of prime minister and I accepted, despite the fact that we don’t have it in the Constitution.
“But when the pecking order was put forward by the mediators, they had the president, vice-president, prime minister, two deputies and council of ministers. Machar rejected it because he wanted to be an executive prime minister who will exercise all the powers and the president becomes ceremonial. He was told ‘no’, because this was an elected executive president. If you want to be an executive prime minister or president, then you wait for elections and keep out of this government. He wanted to share executive powers with the president and yet these powers were given by the people,” Mr Kiir said.
President Kiir added that the Igad talks in Addis Ababa after violence broke out in South Sudan in December 2013, could only end the conflict if the mediators acknowledged that Dr Machar’s men were “coup plotters”.
He also spoke about the pressure from regional leaders and his views on claims that Kenya supports the Machar group.
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