By Gatkuoth Lok
Pres. Salva Kiir Mayardiit addressing the National Legislative Assembly (NLC) on 15 Dec 2013. Photo (Nyamilepedia)
March 8, 2014 (Nyamilepedia) — Kiir’s intentionality to remain president for life, the essence of the current crisis in South Sudan caused Nuer and Dinka believed they are enemies to each other but they are not other than Kiir mass-massacred Nuer in Juba, a gesture partly telling Dinka Bor, him and Makuei Lueth, the information minister have thoroughly avenged on behalf of Bor Dinka against Nuer as put by Weirial Puok Baluang, a political commentator and partly telling us to win back all Dinka democrat politicians rallying behind Dr. Machar to join their tribesmen and demonstrating it a fight between Dinka and Nuer that might stop other countries of benevolence to help Machar’s forces seeing them tribal forces that might finish each other but the reverse is true.
1-President Kiir’s project
What is it that thing I call Kiir’s project? In the below paragraphs you will get the answer to the captioned asked question.
It is only the ordinary people who do not understand the essence of the current crisis in our beloved country South Sudan politics, but to many intellectuals of diverse professions and objectivity it is very clear to them and they do understand the nature of Kiir’s project. The project is for president Kiir to remain president for life. And this is never simple as long as Dr. Machar and his political allies remained committed to propel democracy into existence. This has to risk Kiir’s life and his posterity if not only his tenure in office for having opted to commit what is politically called necessary evil.
Having pondered upon the hypothetical imperatives of clinging onto presidency for Awan Chan benefits exclusively, Kiir realized that it presupposes non-existence of Dr. Machar and his subordinates. This truth of fact and reason caused Kiir to think of eliminating Machar or else failure to deadly do that he has to finish Machar‘s supporters whom he erroneously perceived as Nuer to actualize his life presidency.
This brings us to know the reason why the December, 15 2013 incident did occur purposefully to gradually institutionalize dictatorship in South Sudan. This is unthinkable and unspeakable to pronounce the aforementioned incident a coup attempt; it is not at all a coup but an assassination attempt in kernel as many authorities agreed.
2- A Coup attempt is a misnomer of what happened on 15th Dec. 2013, Juba-South Sudan
It must be made clear that what happened in Juba-South Sudan on 15th Dec. 2013 was not in any form a coup attempt rather it was an assassination attempt by president Kiir himself against Riek Machar and his supporters as previously alluded to.
It is a pity that President Salva Kiir Mayardit did not use his right and certain conscience morally speaking to know the grave contradiction between killing fabricated coup plotters and mass- massacring of over 17613 Nuer civilians in Juba according to NODETT. If Kiir had committed himself to do away with coup plotters he would not have mass-massacred Nuer civilians in Juba.
We can now make a strong inference from our argument that President Kiir, epistemologically speaking knowingly mass-massacred Nuer whom he mistakenly perceived coup plotters in order to weaken his antagonist, Machar not because Nuer people can be found in any way part and parcel of the fabricated coup attempt but because he wanted to entrench dictatorship whose institutionalization presupposes Machar elimination and Nuer annihilation by his thuggish Dootku Beny and Uganda mercenaries (UPDF).
Then Kiir is illegitimate president who killed his civilians. Hence he must go to where he belongs.
Thank God that Machar narrowly escaped this evil plan of Salva Kiir. And that Kiir’s project of staying in power and totally destroying Nuer will not become true but the opposite is true. This is the bottom line; it implies that Kiir is fully liable on Nuer genocide he committed.
Well, we can also prove that Kiir has been working out against his political rivals and his potential rivals to pave his way to achieve his life presidency or else implicating Machar falsely would be his final resort in order to have two of them out of the potential interim government in the country. Otherwise his priority is institutionalization of Dictatorship in the country, a thing seen unbecoming.
Back to Kiir’s project of committing genocide is never new. This is true. If you can recall what president Kiir did to Shulluk Nation when Dr. Lam Akol rejected Kiir’s administration because of its dictatorial susceptibility almost all Shulluk suffered under Kiir’s regime beginning in 2009-2014. This objection of Kiir’s regime by Akol caused Chollo people their very lives. They were badly killed in Owuaj with a death toll that angered everybody in South Sudan and has been characterized as genocide. The same thing happened to the late George Athor Deng’s clan in Korfulous, Pigi county Jonglei state, the same to Nuer of Bentiu when some rebelled in 2010 after elections a lot of people were killed by the SPLA under the directives of president Kiir. And the killing of Gawaar and Laak Nuer in Kaldak and Pom el Zaraf by the SPLA respectively, amounted to more than 2500 victims. Finally Kiir almost finished Murle tribe mobilizing the SPLA and all tribes of South Sudan against Murle people and killed a lot of them.
Worse of all the above mentioned groups have already undergone cooptation policy being used by Kiir now leaving behind their pursuits with exception of David Yau Yau’s faction relatively. This cooptation policy is epitomized by Gen. Ulony, a leader of one of the said groups from Chullo who has the problem of land with the Dinka community in Upper Nile state. This dear Ulony has been given some appeasement titles and some oil money to give up his goal that killed a lot of Chullo people, shame on him. Moreover Dr. Akol Ajawin is no exception here for he turned pro –dictatorship politician who wholeheartedly contributes night and day to concretize life presidency for Kiir? This is a great insult to Akol’s intelligence for he is known countrywide of supporting democracy in the country, even little children know this.
The burning questions here are, if people have to die simply because they support their leaders are Machar’s subordinates only Nuers in South Sudan and had to undergo the paradigmatic killing as the above groups? Are those groups not aware of divide and rule policy and cooptation policy?
Of course not only Nuer are Machar’s supporters since he eloquently answered this question during his interview on the VOA, that he has good followers from Dinka, Shulluk, Equartoria and the rest of our ethnic groups. The second question I left to the co-opted persons to answer, particularly Lam Akol, the co-opted chairman of the SPLM-DC who has compromised his party’s political ideology: democracy for greener pastures he is inaccurately anticipating.
If you ask yourself for the reason why Dr. Machar got a lot of supporters across the country, the answer to this question is simple and plain. That it is true that Machar has a huge support across the country simply because his political ideology is democracy and his system of government is federalism opposed to Kiir’s political ideology which is dictatorship and his system of government which is unquestionably unitary system.
As such Machar has got an unbelievable support all over the country. This is the very reason why criminal Kiir is now using the language of isolation telling South Sudanese to remain spectators since he and his cohorts preach to South Sudanese that the problem is a problem between Nuer and Dinka at the beginning of the crisis though diminish now, which is nonsensical and absurd, for methinks, the problem is between the aforesaid ideologies and government systems supporters struggling of which ideology and government system shall be actualized in the country.
And actualizing dictatorship in the country is tantamount to Kiir’s project of remaining president for life about which he is systematically killing supporters of his rivals; take George Athor Deng, Gatluak Gai and Lam Akol are quintessential specimen.
Now for Kiir to stay president enticed him to mobilize 63 tribes of South Sudan against one ethnic group, the Nuer with pride and he has also to mobilize hungry Eastern African countries led by Uganda to weaken Machar by cleansing the Nuer people in the country. This is done at the watch of Nuer politicians like Riek Gai Kok, the present minister of health, Manasseh Magok Rundial, the current speaker of national legislative assembly (NLA) who can rightly boycott this scheme. Not to mention James Kok Ruek, Duer Jakok and the tamed Nadia Arob of Unity state for we cannot blame them simply because they are memorizers and myopic in politics. We shall turn to this campaign against Nuer later.
To this point we cemented our thesis on proving that what happened on 15.12.2013, in Juba South Sudan was not a coup attempt rather than an assassination attempt by president Kiir himself against Dr. Machar. And the meta-genocide on Nuer by Kiir is what Kiir does always to any members of a tribe of his rivals as afore-explicated. Next is Kiir’s campaign against Nuer Nation. Why doing that? That is what we shall see below.
3-Kiir’s campaign against Nuer
During the Communistic Sudan people’s Liberation Movement youth league rally in Juba led by Akol Paul, Kiir disparagingly criticized Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior , the widow of the late John Garang of revealing to the world that Salva Kiir, has mass-massacred Nuer people in Juba by ordering 15000 non-SPLA locally known as Dootku Beny ( local kinsmen armed, to execute any task given them by the president ) to cleanse any Nuer they got and get in Juba . Kiir boasted of the excellent job done by the 15000 Dootku Beny when they combed the Nuer in Juba and controlled Juba. The man of lax conscience Kiir Mayar continued saying that what these Special Forces did was good for they guaranteed his throne, adding that there is no crime of recruiting them since they got a job to do.
President Kiir called on all 63 ethnic groups to fight against Nuer, ( a thing he did to both Chullo and Murle people ) . He did not limit his campaign against Nuer Nation, he reached out to groups of Sudan rebels notably; JEM, SPLA-N, SRF, and South Sudan militia groups such as SSLA also known as south Sudan liberation army led by Nguen and his brother Bapiny Munytuil. In addition to that, president Museveni of Uganda has decided to join the accomplishment of the project of eliminating the Nuer people in South Sudan at the invitation by Kiir.
Museveni said he has to help Kiir remain president for life. He then went and mobilized the so-called great lake countries whose soldiers are now identified by their identity cards in Ugandan military uniforms whenever caught by the pro-democracy forces known as SPLA in opposition.
Now there are two things we must know. On the one hand, ethnic cleansing is not acceptable according to the international law. On the other hand non-intervention into other sovereign state internal affairs and non-interference into territorial integrity is important to observe based upon the same law. Therefore; any country of goodwill should now see the necessity of saving lives of their fellow human beings who are undergoing ethnic cleansing in the hands of notorious and good for nothing countries like Uganda and her likes. It is justifiable for Western countries of concern to help us force out dictator Kiir before it is too late.
The key question is what is Kiir’s goal to wage war against democrats in the country? The answer is that he badly needs to cling onto power for life. If that is the case, why call it Nuer-Dinka war? Let’s see.
4-Not Nuer versus Dinka rather Democracy versus Dictatorship
Beginning with a question that reads is there anyone saying South Sudan crisis is between Nuer and Dinka? If yes, you are wrong and if no, then you are right. In my answer to one of the BBC journalist who subjectively asked me whether or not Nuer and Dinka will still live side by side as brothers and sisters in this Republic. My answer to the question was that absolutely ‘yes’ we will still live side by side as brothers and sisters. Why do I say this? Because Dinka did not agree to fight against Nuer nor Nuer agree to fight against Dinka as simple as that.
And having a look at political divide in the country we can observe that some political allies to Dr. Riek Machar like: Gen. Alfred Ladu Gore, Rebecca Nyandeng, Pa’gan Amum to mention a few are not from Nuer ethnic group. At Kiir’s camp VP James Wani, Riek Gai Kok, Dr. Akol Ajawin, the three are not from Dinka tribe all of the two camps members are from our diverse ethnic groups.
If the fight now between Kiir’s pro-dictatorship forces and Machar’s pro-democracy forces is the intensification of the political fight between Kiir’s camp and Machar’s camp then it is not in any way a fight between Nuer and Dinka other than between the aforementioned camps. Therefore it is a serious mistake to implicate our people Dinka and Nuer in this political crisis.
Machar’s political ideology is democracy and Kiir’s is dictatorship. Therefore; the fight is between the democrats and dictators, not between our good Nuer and Dinka. Hence Kiir is killing Nuer civilians that they are staunch democrats who work night and day for propelling democracy in to being to de-institutionalize dictatorship. This qualifies Kiir as enemy to democracy and hence, he is enemy to all South Sudanese and the world.
Now that Kiir is doing away with Nuer People because they are deeply democrats who support democracy but what of other South Sudanese who are staunch democrats as Nuers; are they immune from this victimization against democrats? The answer is that Kiir has his project to cleanse Nuer in the country that is why he is mobilizing 63 ethnic groups of South Sudan and Uganda with her allies to accomplish the genocidal project against Nuer.
Will Nuer give up? No, Nuer will never ever think to give up what killed their people. Nuer will continually fight as they did for Self-determination 1991 until they win the war over dictators. This is the second phase of struggle as Dr. Machar clearly put it.
This will be the time our dear South Sudanese join us like they did during South Sudan referendum. All of us shall sing the song for all democrats winning over perplexing dictators. This shall be the emergence of the Democracy we aspire for, the State of South Sudan.
The claim that our people are fighting against each other is deceptive and misleading, however; Salva Kiir himself tribalised what was known as political differences in the SPLM party and turned it to be seen as tribal fighting by targeting Nuer people in Juba.
The criterion set to kill all Nuer in Juba was whenever found a Nuer by tribe then you qualified yourself to die in all categories of professions for no pastor, no member of parliament, no students, no women, no children, nothing, all who were identified Nuers had to die.
By doing so Kiir speciously thought that, Nuer people would immediately go to kill Dinka people such that politicians rallying behind Machar might leave him to join his camp, fortunately that did not happen as Kiir’s expectations.
5- Machar winning over Kiir
South Sudanese know very well that the answer to their suffering is both democracy and federalism in South Sudan and they too know that the only driving force to bring these ideals to existence is Dr. Riek Machar Teny, the only hope for us all. Whereas Kiir is working out to copy Museveni’s way of staying in power until his son succeeds him is adding fuel to fire.. This is not liberating for South Sudanese as may be the case to Ugandans because it is enslaving people to the core.
In Kiir’s dictatorship the system of government is unitary system in which top positions are given to Warrap state. Look to qualify of any important work in the course of Kiir’s good nine years in office you must be from Kiir’s state to be assigned to do important task, say to be security director, top businessman or woman, president of the judiciary to mention but a few any vital post holder has to be from Kiir’s area of Awan Chan Dinka.
Such a practice intrinsically caused South Sudanese to seriously hate Dictatorship, unitary system, cronyism, nepotism and other vices that presently have qualified President Kiir no president that he must go.
To sum up this discourse, South Sudanese know very well that they cannot be deceived twice for they have been misled to follow unity of Sudan for almost 22 years that they in the end left to Malik Agar and Yasir Arman in the North when Dr. Riek Machar’s vision of secession (misunderstood for many years) and Dr. John Garang’s vision of unity of New Sudan were exposed to South Sudanese to choose the fate of their life. The choice resulted to Machar’s vision of secession-South Sudan Independence and left Garang’s vision of the unity of New Sudan to North Sudanese supporters in the North continuing with their struggle.
This implies that all South Sudanese of different walks of life this time embrace fight for democracy realization knowingly and deliberately.
1991 incomprehension of demonizing the SPLM or SPLA split must not repeat itself. For it became salvific after our breathtaking Independence July, 9. 2011. This is the case why Machar commands a huge support among the citizens knowing for certain that Machar’s political ideology is democracy which embodies justice that contains the rule of law, rights and equality all of which are working only in a democratic country. Machar guaranteed that our anticipated country must be a democratic country where the rule of law prevails, accountability flourishes and rampant corruption is radically reduced to nothing and the rest of the vices being done away with and diminishing. This must become true. It must become true as long as we unanimously work to force out of power the Gogrial Dictator Salva Kiir to consequentially and breathtakingly establish simultaneously democracy and federalism in the South. This is our faith to profess in our struggle to freedom. We all settled assured to fight against dictators.
God bless south sudan!
The author is a concerned citizen of south Sudan; he can be reached at lokgatwech@yahoo.com
