After the Failed Joshua (Kiir), the Ultimate Messiah (Riek) finally brought peace
8 min readAfter PaanLuel Wël’s proclaimed Joshua [Kiir] Failed the Country, It is now the Ultimate Messiah [Riek] Who Brought Peace (R-ARCSS) to South Sudan
By Job Kiir Garang Kuir (Kiir-Agou), Edmonton, Canada
Monday, September 24, 2018 (PW) — The world’s newest country of South Sudan continues to wage a bloody fratricidal war against itself. The war has threatened the very survival of this fragile young nation, leaving the social fabric in utter ruin.
On the evening of December 15th, 2013, a mutiny took place within the so-called Tiger battalions that guards the president. The mutiny occurred during a tense political climate in the country within the SPLM party as the politico military elites jostle for positions within the party. It is understood that whoever takes control of the ruling SPLM party is almost likely assured of becoming the country’s president. As such the stakes couldn’t be so high.
The much loathed incompetent country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit who is also called Joshua by his ever dwindling supporters, is the chairman of SPLM Party. As Chairman of the ruling SPLM, Salva Kiir is deputized by Riek Machar (1st Deputy) whose supporters see in him a Messiah, and also by corrupt and inept James Wani Igga (2nd Deputy).
After independence from Sudan on the 9th of July 2011, the SPLM planned to hold party elections with the position of Chairman attracting greater interests. But Salva Kiir, the Party Chairman, is no democrat. He preached lip service about democracy but does not practice it. He numerously delayed calling party conventions.
On Joshua’s visit to Europe, senior members of the SPLM Party including the Messiah — Riek Machar— called a press conference on December 6th, 2013 urging chairman to call a party convention. In the press conference the leaders stated that the party has lost vision and direction; that corruption was rampant and that the country risked falling into total chaos and disorder.
On his return from Europe, a visibly angry Joshua — Salva Kiir — left the next day for South Africa and upon returning from South Africa, Salva Kiir hurriedly called a party convention and on the agenda were some contentious issues. One of the issues was the insistence of Salva Kiir to select singlehandedly 5% of the party delegates to the convention were the chairman would be elected and with Salva Kiir himself also a candidate. Another issue of contention was whether or not the election will be by secret ballot of by show of hand. Joshua wanted show of hand to intimidate delegates while the Messiah and the other candidates wanted, instead, a secret ballot.
In the convention, Salva Kiir put in-charge the much uncivilized and uncompromising Michael Makuei Lueth who slavishly obeys whatever Joshua wants, however stupid Joshua’s stand is. It’s important to note that Michael Makuei Lueth holds no party position but that of government spokesman himself being Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Yet Michael Makuei Lueth was put in charge and conducted the Party meeting with near violent approach and ensured that only members supporting Salva Kiir could speak.
Emotions flared on the first contentious day of the SPLM’s Party Convention and this was on December 14th, 2013. The following day on December 15th, 2013, the Messiah and other party bigwigs didn’t return to the convention which in a perverse twist fulfilled Joshua’s unwise wishes.
On the evening of December 15th, 2013, a fight broke out within the Presidential Guard Unit, also called the Tiger Battalion. The fight was joined by other units and by civilians. The mutiny and the gunfight that ensued was unfortunately along Dinka – Nuer divides. In 1991, the Messiah attempted to overthrow the then leader of SPLM, the Late Dr. John Garang De Mabior, and that led to a fight in which thousands of Dinka civilians were killed by forces loyal to Riek Machar and who by and large his fellow tribesmen. This was the first politicised conflict fitting Nuer against the Dinka.
In the morning of December 16th, 2013, a fully clad in Tiger’s military fatigue, Salva Kiir addressed a press conference in which he accused Riek Machar of having attempted a coup d’état. He made references to 1991 and promise to protect the Dinka people against the Nuer. Yet no credible person could side with Salva Kiir in his false coup narrative. The coup only took place in Salva Kiir’s imagination. The falsehood was hatched and peddled to kill Riek Machar but the Messiah had already fled Juba on the night of the mutiny and made his way to Bor. It is important to state that Salva Kiir had recruited and trained a large irregular, private army consisting of Dinka only from states in Bahr el Ghazal region. In Juba many Nuer soldiers and civilians were slaughtered in cold blood by this irregular force, also known in Dinka as Mathiang-Anyor.
In Bor, Riek Machar was joined by soldiers under the command of James Gadet, a notorious former warlord, and a fellow Nuer tribesman. While in Bor the Messiah urged the Nuer soldiers to not take revenge on the Dinka as they retreated from Bor towards Nuerland. But the so-called White Army, made up of armed Nuer youth/civilians came matching on to Bor towards Juba but were repulsed by combined SPLA and the Ugandan military forces. But they had already torched Bor and many Dinka civilians were killed. This episode spread quickly especially in Greater Upper Nile (GUN) region and some in pockets in Greater Bahr el Ghazal (GB) and Greater Equatoria (GE) regions.
Then the rounds of peace talks were launched in the IGAD region culminating in the signing of the Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCISS) in August 2015. Joshua was reluctant in signing the agreement and indeed finally signed with a long list of reservations. The agreement reinstated the Messiah to the position of First Vice President (FVP). The Messiah was fired as FVP by Joshua in July 2013.
By July 2016, ARCISS had unravelled and again Joshua wanted the Messiah killed/dead. But the Messiah had adeptly learned his arts of escaping Juba and this time he was pursued for 40 days by the army, the SPLA, into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where he sought refuge with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). He was later airlifted to Khartoum, Sudan, by the Government of Sudan. Later on the Messiah went to South Africa for routine eye check/treatment.
While in South Africa, the IGAD Heads of States and Governments conspired against the Messiah and refused him return and was marooned in the airports in Khartoum and Addis Ababa. Authorities in the two capitals told him to return to South Africa where he was quickly placed under house arrest.
Not knowing how this would become incredibly counterproductive, rebellions sprouted and became rampant throughout the country. And so in July 2018, the IGAD Heads of States and Governments ordered the release from house arrest of the Messiah in South Africa and straight he went to Khartoum and Addis Ababa to join the round of peace talks alternated from both capitals. Between August and September 2018, a coerced Khartoum Peace Agreement (KPA) has been signed with more fine details still under negotiations. The country will now have a bloated 550 Members of Parliaments (MPs) from 430, 40 cabinet ministers, and 5 Vice Presidents with the Messiah as the FVP.
So clearly the country enjoys some relative peace when the Messiah is in government and as such he is an important partner in maintaining or securing peace. But will Joshua/Salva Kiir show statesmanship this time or will he continue to work against peace as he did in the past? It is important to note that Kiir is sectarianist and has perfected the art of divide and rule and divides even the Dinka into regions or clans and so he has gotten himself beholden to tribes minded amateur politicians. Let’s be a bit optimistic and hope for the best.
Finally, Judas Taban Deng Gai is a no body in his backyard and for the incompetent Joshua to take onboard a political liability to perpetuate the war was a mistake, if outrightly criminal. Many South Sudanese including yours truly had analytically argued that the peace with Taban was a bad peace which has become unfortunately the real truth. Taban is a ruthless crocodile and cannot be trusted to aid in the cause of peace. Only an inept leader, and it is difficult to argue against in the case of Joshua, would be so naive to bring him onboard as if he was a leader with following; only that Joshua is too inept to have realised that the South Sudanese people didn’t believe in his faked search for peace in our country. Jumping into bed with Taban so thoughtlessly as the country suffers a renewed and widening conflict betrayed Joshua’s true beliefs and inclinations. The Messiah (Riek Machar) is a victim of ethnicized politics particularly by Bor and Rek Dinka; the other sections of Dinka have been disenfranchised just like the non-Dinka citizens. The killings of innocent South Sudanese on both the Nuer and Dinka divides is used by Bor and Rek to hold the country ever hostage to its dark past and this unacceptable.
Like I wrote recently, the likes of Micahael Makuei and Kuol Manyang have been opposing the deal and contradicted the president in Addis Ababa. Surprisingly, the same Makuei and Kuol gleefully accepted the Khartoum Peace Agreement and danced shamelessly as seen in many videos. That peace deal is a sell-out of our sovereignty to Khartoum and only the fools would celebrate that way. The only hope we may have now is that the Messiah is there guide the implementation and keep an eye on the warmongers of J1. In 2016, I opined that peace without Riek will never prevail; and surely today, a semblance of peace is coming despite the usual obstacles ahead, only because Riek agreed to it. So Mr. Paanluelwel, I dispute your Joshua’s supposedly goodwill, and the ultimate Messiah only holds the keys to a peaceful South Sudan despite being aggrieved always.
You can reach the author via his email: kiiragou77@gmail.com
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