This article was last updated on May 26, 2022
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During his remarks, President Kiir vowed to reach a sustainable peace deal with his former Vice President turned rebel leader, Dr. Riek Machar, despite what he described as Machar’s dishonesty to the international community. Kiir further warned his rival: “You cannot enjoy your leadership if you use short cuts to power”.
Drawing a connection between the late-2012 unrest which accompanied the decision to relocate Wau’s administrative HQ outside the town and the start of the current crisis a year later, President Kiir said: “In 2012, violence erupted in Wau town and claimed the lives of many people. There was no reason for their deaths; let it not occur again”.
“In December 2013, instead of our nation going ahead with development plans, Riek Machar started violence in the country”, continued Kiir. “Let us not make the month of December, which is a holy month for Christians, become a month of killing ourselves”, he said.
Accusing the former Vice President of selfish motives, Kiir continued: “When Riek Machar started with his failed coup in Juba on 15 December 2013, he did not think about what the lives of people would be. He only focussed his mind on leadership for himself alone, not on the people of South Sudan”.
Referring to the IGAD sponsored peace process, President Kiir was blunt about why his face-to-face meeting with Dr. Machar had failed to produce substantive agreement between the two sides.
“You all know that there are ongoing negotiations in Addis Ababa, I went there and I met Dr. Reik Machar in April and June. We did not come out with any positive result because Riek’s mindset remain that he would soon become president of South Sudan through his own struggle”, said Kiir.
Kiir said, “my brother[ Riek believes in the propaganda that this government must be reformed and anyone in this government should go so that he can come in… yet we have a system of elections”, so that if you want to be a president or a governor, there is a time set for the country through the president’s team in power, to go for elections”… “if you desire to be a president; if you have to come through election; if you have the endurance, people can still bring you up as a president- but not through short cuts, Kiir emphasized, continued, saying: “You cannot enjoy your leadership if you use short cuts to power,”
“We were in April on 9th told to sign a ceasefire and we agreed to sign the agreement in front of the international community and we came back. This was the government’s commitment to bring peace back to its people. But the forces under control of Reik Machar on 11th April launched attacks on our forces… Riek said it was our forces attacking them, which is untrue,” said Kiir, “but this is what he is telling the international community”.
Suggesting that the international community should be more skeptical when assessing the reliability of Dr. Machar’s statements, President Kiir addressed accusations of ethnically-targetted violence. He pointed out that, although Machar has accused his government of killing Nuer people because he ]Kiir[ is a Dinka, during Machar’s attack on Bentiu, the Nuer who were forced to flee by Riek’s Nuer forces had found safe refuge among Dinka host communities in Warrap and Lakes states.“Let all the organizations working in these areas bear witness to that,” he urged.
Referring to accusations that both sides to the conflict have recruited child soldiers, Kiir stated that Dr. Machar continues to recruit children below 18 years old into his militia forces, while SPLA had been demobilizing under-aged combatants since 2001, in response to the
rights of children.
Kiir said that the PhD-holding former Vice President was being driven by a local spiritual leader who has engaged Riek in mobilizing youths to fight the national army. When these youths are killed in battle, said Kiir, Riek accuses him and his forces of killing Nuer on a tribalist basis whilein fact he is the only one mobilizing young men.
Kiir also decried the atrocities of which forces under Machar’s control have been accused. “What has he done when his forces entered Bor? They killed those who were under medical treatment and raped female church elders, women who are even at the ages of their
mothers, they were raped in groups, killed and left naked which is totally unacceptable,” Kiir said.
Despite such actions by Dr. Machar’s forces, and his lies to the international community, President Kiir said, the government remains committed to making peace with Machar: “We are moving to achieve peace but to achieve everlasting peace, let us both work hard together with the international mediators to agree that war stops and we deploy a monitoring committee to observe the signed ceasefire and allow humanitarian assistance to affected populations”, Kiir said.
“Committing ourselves to peace can provide us a time to sit down and see what Machar wants, since he is talking about the post of prime minister, which is also not specified in our national constitution. This needs our people to sit down and make some work on the constitution, which is not my role”, he said.
“Enough is enough, let’s forget about tribalism and all stay in peace, the long division has not brought any change to us and that is why our south Sudan was remained behind. There are no people still leaving in such houses as that we are inaugurating today, while people ]elsewhere[ are advancing to a modern world,” he said.
During the inauguration, President Kiir was accompanied by a numerous senior government and Party figures including the SPLM’s acting Secretary General, Dr. Anne Itto, host governor of WBGS, Rizik Zackaria Hassan, and the two governors of neighbouring Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap states.
Bagari is the headquarters of Wau County; the decision to transfer the administrative office from Wau town to Ngo Bagari led to violence in Wau town in December 2012. The transfer was opposed by some politicians from Wau county. Following bitter inter-communal violence over the move, a special court issued two year jail sentences to two state legislative assembly members and number of youth who took part in the violence. They remain incarcerated.
President Kiir reiterated his strong support for the decision to move the county headquarters, saying: “Since the elected governor Rizik came to power, he came up with the decision of implementing the SPLM vision of taking towns to the people. Encouraging development is why we are here today,” Kiir told the crowd
Related Speech by President Kiir
“You cannot enjoy your leadership if you use short cuts to power”
“When Riek Machar started with his failed coup in Juba on 15 December 2013, he did not think about what the lives of people would be. He only focussed his mind on leadership for himself alone, not on the people of South Sudan”.
“my brother Riek believes in the propaganda that this government must be reformed and anyone in this government should go so that he can come in… yet we have a system of elections”
“during Machar’s attack on Bentiu, the Nuer who were forced to flee by Riek’s Nuer forces…found safe refuge among Dinka host communities in Warrap and Lakes states.“Let all the organizations working in these areas bear witness to that”.
On the rebel attack on Bor: “They killed those who were under medical treatment and raped female church elders, women who are even at the ages of their mothers; they were raped in groups, killed and left naked”
“Committing ourselves to peace can provide us a time to sit down and see what Machar wants, since he is talking about the post of prime minister, which is also not specified in our national constitution. This needs our people to sit down and make some work on the constitution, which is not my role”
“Enough is enough, let’s forget about tribalism and all stay in peace”
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