Why President Kiir should immediately dismiss Foreign Minister Deng Alor Kuol
12 min readOpen Letter to President Salva Kiir Mayardit Requesting an Immediate Dismissal of Mr. Deng Alor Kuol
To: H.E. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit
President of the Republic of South Sudan
C-in-C of the SPLA Army
Presidential Palace, J1
Juba, South, Sudan
Dear President Salva Kiir Mayardit,
October 20, 2017 (SSB) — We, the undersigned patriots from all ethnic groups of South Sudan, are profoundly disturbed by the sinister actions of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hon. Deng Alor Kuol, who took upon himself the task to undermine the smooth implementation of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCISS) signed in August 2015. Prior to enumerating the steps taken by him to undermine the ARCISS, we would like to highlight the history of his betrayal of the peace and tranquility of our country.
This letter is divided into three parts. Part one highlights the machinations and deceptions Mr. Deng Alor employed to deceive the then Vice President Dr. Riek Machar in 2013 to demand the immediate resignation of the Chairman of the SPLM Party in contravention of the basic rules and regulations of the SPLM Party. His deceptions led to the outbreak of war in 2013. Part two focuses on the current plots to destroy the implementation of the peace. Part three is the fundamental objective of Mr. Deng Alor, which is, garnering international support to topple President Salva Kiir Mayardit.
Part One: The role of Deng Alor in the war of December 15, 2013
It should be noted that the war of 2013 was not just an eruption of violence out of a blue; however, it was an eruption caused by the chain of political events in which the role played by Mr. Deng Alor Kuol was more detrimental than the historical madness of Riek Machar as a person. In most civilized countries, a person who counselled another person to commit a treasonous crime is as guilty as the one who committed the actual crime.
In March 2013, Mr. Deng Alor created a dangerous political madness by telling people like Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and other SPLM cadres that President Salva Kiir Mayardit was not going to run for Presidency in 2015. He backed up his plot by telling them that he was in a meeting in which President Salva Kiir Mayardit told President Mbeki that he would not run in 2015 as the flagbearer of the SPLM Party.
When Mr. Deng Alor conveyed the false news to the then Vice President Riek Machar, the latter immediately assembled a political campaign team headed by his wife to prepare himself as the flagbearer of the SPLM Party without officially confirming it from the horse mouth simply because Mr. Deng Alor claimed to have been in a meeting with President Kiir where he divulged the secret. Mr. Deng Alor advised Riek Machar not to waste his time to enquire from President Salva Kiir arguing that the President would not tell him the truth because he wanted somebody else other than Riek Machar to be the flagbearer of the party. Riek Machar believed Mr. Deng Alor’s deception because in 2008 SPLM Primary prior to the convention, Chairman Salva Kiir did not nominate Riek Machar as his running mate to become the first deputy of the SPLM.
There is no doubt that Mr. Deng Alor Kuol played a dangerous role in what led to war in December 2013 because his fake news motivated power-hungry Riek Machar to assemble a war machine that was not disassembled even after President Salva Kiir Mayardit denied his fake news later in June 2013. When the Chairman of the Party called for SPLM Political Bureau meeting in July 2013 and made it clear that the news of not running in 2015 election was fake, Mr. Deng Alor insisted to Riek Machar to continue his campaign to unseat Salva Kiir Mayardit as the Chairman of the SPLM. With his advice, Riek Machar gave an interview to the guardian newspaper calling for Cde Salva Kiir Mayardit to stepdown from the Chairmanship of the SPLM and retire from politics all together. His lust for power was boosted by the support of Mr. Deng Alor who promised to bring all Garang’s boys behind him.
When the war broke out in 2013, the Garang’s boys were arrested and Deng Alor was among the first group to be released and exiled to Kenya where he told all the regional leaders and diplomats that President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar were not needed by the international community. He preached that the Former Detainees (later G10) were being prepared to take leadership of the country.
After his release from jail in Juba, the very Deng Alor who deceived Riek Machar prior to the outbreak of the war accused him of being a warmonger who could not lead South Sudan. When Mr. Pagan Amum, Gen. Oyay Deng Ajak, Gen. Majak Agoot and Amb. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth were released and taken to Kenya, Mr. Deng Alor misinformed them that President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar were not needed by the international community and urged the FDs to form a political front that would assume the leadership of the country. Because of that, Mr. Pagan Amum regained his appetite to be the President of South Sudan and assumed the leadership of G10 thinking that the country would be handed over to them by the international community.
Amb. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, who is well-versed in international politics and diplomacy, attempted to advise the FDs not to believe Mr. Deng Alor but to no avail. After realizing that the political ambition of Mr. Pagan Amum for presidency was untreatable, he joined Dr. Riek Machar’s SPLM-IO as a way to bring peace between the warring parties rather than wasting his time with utopians who claimed to be chiefs without Indians.
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Part Two: Deng Alor’s plots to destroy the implementation of ARCISS
When the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGONU) was formed in May 2016, Mr. Deng Alor was appointed as a Minister of Foreign Affairs to fill the quota allocated to FDs as per the provision of power-sharing of the ARCISS. Everybody in South Sudan thought that he would embrace the spirit of the ARCISS and work towards realization of the peace in the country.
Prior to the signing of ARCISS in August 2015, the primary goal of the FDs was to depose SPLM-IG and SPLM-IO from power using the international community. But the international community realized that the SPLM-IG and the SPLM-IO were the ones with boots on the ground. The United States had learned through hard way and could no longer be deceived by Ahmed Chalabis of South Sudan who did not have any political base but hoped that the international community could eradicate the SPLM-IG and the SPLM-IO to pave the way for FDs to rule South Sudan.
When Mr. Deng Alor became the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, everyone thought that he would be protecting and defending the interest and sovereignty of the Republic and advocate for the political, diplomatic and financial support to the TGONU and full implementation of the ARCISS. But for Mr. Deng Alor, being a Minister of Foreign Affairs was an opportunity to communicate with the international community to effectuate regime change.
The role of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of all Countries in the world is to defend the country and the leadership of that Country. This is the basic rule of thumb in diplomacy. But in the Republic of South Sudan it is not the case. Deng Alor Kuol, who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is campaigning that President of the Republic of South Sudan, His Excellency General Salva Kiir Mayardit, should be removed from power illegally.
The followings are some of the crimes Mr. Deng Alor has been committing against the TGONU to realize regime change:
- In August 2016, Mr. Deng Alor was busy in the IGAD Plus Extra-Ordinary Summit campaigning to delegitimize the new FVP, H.E, Gen. Taban Deng Gai. His message to regional leaders was that Gen. Taban Deng Gai was not legitimate and should be rejected by the Heads of State and Government of IGAD as somebody illegally appointed. Mr. Deng Alor said Riek Machar should come back for peace to continue and for stability to prevail. However, Mr. Deng Alor and his colleagues were using Riek Machar as a political tool to create a political situation of instability that would give rise to the need for a regime change in South Sudan. The fact that Gen. Taban Deng was restoring peace and harmony in the country was a threat to the primary objective of FDs;
- In Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in the Arabs/Africa Summit, Deng Alor was busy telling all the Foreign Ministers of African and Arab countries that there was no security improvement in Juba and the whole country and fighting was still raging, and President Salva Kiir was not reconciling with his opponents;
- Mr. Deng Alor went to China and seriously campaigned against His Excellency President Salva Kiir and His Excellency First Vice President Taban Deng. He also undermined the projects to be funded by China EXIM Bank by telling the Chinese government that South Sudan Government was corrupt and weak;
- Mr. Deng Alor went to Sudan on January 1st, 2017 and declared in an interview with local newspaper that he was the one who created the National Dialogue and for the National Dialogue, peace and reconciliation to succeed, Riek Machar must be part and parcel of the process. He falsely claimed that without Riek Machar, there would be no peace in South Sudan;
- Mr. Deng Alor is using his position worldwide to undermine TGONU and legitimacy of His Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardiit;
- Mr. Deng Alor also campaigned for Michael Makuei Lueth, General Paul Malong Awan and Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro to be sanctioned by the UNSC;
- Mr. Deng Alor quarreled with the First Vice President, Gen. Taban Gai, in front of President Yuweri Museveni on September 18 in New York because he was saying that dissolving the TGONU and the SPLM reunification are not mutually exclusive;
- In New York City, Mr. Deng Alor quarreled with the First Vice President, Gen. Taban Deng Gai and Hon. Nhial Deng Nhial, after he falsely accused the Chairman of the SPLM Party, Cde Salva Kiir Mayardit, of being the obstacle of SPLM reunification because he was being held hostage by the Jieng Council of Elders. H.E. Taban Deng Gai and Hon. Nhial Deng Nhial defended the Chairman of the SPLM and denied the malicious accusations of Mr. Deng Alor. First Vice President, Gen. Taban Deng informed President Museveni that the FDs are not interested in the SPLM reunification. Their primary objective is to topple President Kiir Mayardit.
- Mr. Deng Alor was campaigning seriously in New York during UN General Assembly meeting proposing to world leaders that the only solution to bring peace in South Sudan is for President Salva Kiir to be forced to stepdown.
Part Three: The objective of Deng Alor is a removal of President Kiir Mayardit
The revitalization of the ARCISS called for by the IGAD to energize the Accord of 2015 is being used by Mr. Deng Alor Kuol as another mechanism to push for the removal of President Kiir Mayardit from Presidency. When the IGAD Foreign Ministers visited Juba on Oct 13 and met the FDs, Mr. Deng Along proposed to them that the only way to bring peace to South Sudan was for the entire executive branch of TGONU to be removed and be replaced by what he referred to as “a Government of Technocrats”.
The idea that the executive branch of TGONU should be dissolved and be replaced by the “Government of Technocrats” is an offshoot of Pagan Amum’s proposal in 2016 that the United Nations should set up what he referred to as “United Nations Temporary Administration for South Sudan” that would rule the country for five years before handing it over to “technocrats”.
The idea of the “Government of Technocrats” has no legal basis and there is no single provision of the ARCISS that would support it. If the idea of the “Government of Technocrats” were to be accepted, it implied that the ARCISS was dead because the dissolution of the executive branch of TGONU means the violation of power-sharing provision of the agreement. Anybody advocating such an idea is either a regime changer or an individual suffering from intellectual disability. However, Mr. Deng Alor has not been diagnosed to have an intellectual disability. The disease that inflicted him is the objective to remove President Salva Kiir from power.
Conclusion
In South Sudan Penal Code, a crime of treason is a high crime punishable by death when the accused is found guilty by a competent court. There is no doubt that Mr. Deng Alor Kuol’s action of campaigning for the removal of a sitting President via illegal means is a crime with a severe punishment as stipulated in South Sudan Penal Code. There is enough evidence to charge him of such a crime.
Now that Deng Alor does not hide his position in calling for the removal of President Kiir, is there a justification for him to continue as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of TGONU? Since he is campaigning for dissolution of the executive branch of the TGONU, is there any legal reason for the President not to relieve him from his position to face charges of treason?
The argument of those who are stating that President Salva Kiir cannot remove Mr. Deng Alor because of ARCISS has no constitutional backing and those people have not properly read the ARCISS. There is no provision in the agreement which condones any crime let alone high crimes of treason. Most importantly, the ARCISS does not invalidate South Sudan Penal Code and cannot prevent the head of state to remove a member of FDs who violated criminal laws.
The international community, including IGAD, cannot object to the removal of Mr. Deng Alor who informed the regional body that the TGONU should be dissolved and be replaced by the so-called “Government of Technocrats”. The international community has never stated that ARCISS collapsed. The position of IGAD is that High-level Revitalization Forum is not a renegotiation of the ARCIS. It is the consolidation and energization of the existing TGONU to completely implement the agreement.
Therefore, we the intellectuals of the Republic of South Sudan, are calling for Mr. Deng Alor Kuol to be dismissed immediately. After his dismissal, the Ministry of Justice should lay criminal charges against him for committing the crime of treason.
Signatories,
- Oliver Wani Peter
- John Tut Puoc
- Atem Barkuei Atem
- Abdhalla Ibrahim Rasas
- Elizabeth Nyakuoth Kueth
- Daniel Abraham Wani
- Dau Malong Garang
- Martha Nyandeng Atem
- Mathok Riak Atem
- Oromo Paterno
- Peter Duku Cirilo
- James Gak Riak
- Ambrose Yak Gau
- Lam Lual Akol
- Aban James Ukel
- Sebrino Atem Yak
- Peter Nyuon Deng
- William Abdhalla Wani
- Garang Nhial Garang
- Isiah Chol Deng
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