How Kiir’s Regime Thrives On Hot Air Diplomacy

[Elisabeth Janaina]

How Kiir’s Regime Thrives On Hot Air Diplomacy
September 1, 2017 Nyamilepedia Leave a comment

By Stephen Par Kuol,
Mr. Salva Kiir looks into a hat presented to him by the former US
Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, during a visit to Juba, South
Sudan(Photo: file)

Mr. Salva Kiir looks into a hat presented to him by the former US
Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, during a visit to Juba, South
Sudan(Photo: file)

Sept 1, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —— Any astute spectator on or behind the
scene of the prevailing crisis in South Sudan cannot miss the paper
trail of condemnations that have compiled volumes against Salva Kiir’s
regime since December 2013. From the AU Commission of Inquiry Report
of January 2015 to the UN Penal of Experts Reports of July 2016 to EU
and TRIOKA statements against declaration of 28 states in violation of
ARCISS in October 2015, the most recent statements of TRIOKA and the
UN Penal of experts testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations
Committee dated July 2017, plus numerous JMEC reports, the fault lines
of the ongoing crisis in South Sudan can not be more clearer. In
another word, the verdict is loud and clear: Salva Kiir manufactured
this crisis, financed it, committed genocide and scraped the ARCISS in
the full view of the world public.

The mind- numbing contradiction though is that the same authorities
who compiled those reports have failed to do any thing tangible to
deter the violent behavior of this fascist regime. Until today, the
same regime being bashed as ethnocentric, genocidal, fascist, corrupt
and rogue is still recognised as the legitimate custodian of South
Sudan’s sovereignty by virtue of being in control of the city-state
called Juba. So far, the sovereignty Kiir and the company have
arrogated to J1 is what they use as a shield to survive against all
odds.As we have seen over the years, the vicious beast is survivalist
by instinct. It survives and thrives on the tone and tune of what I
call hot air diplomacy and the crisis itself. Over time, the rogue
regime has developed precocious skills to manoeuvre its way through
the tumultuous waters of this protracted crisis getting away with
rape, murder and all kinds of diplomatic hostilities including
military attack on US diplomats in their own CD registered vehicle.
The regime can get away even with murder of an American journalist
they derogatorily profiled as a white rebel. Exploiting this potent
western diplomacy with neither looming stick nor dangling carrot, Kiir
has bought time and favors to militarily crash his political opponents
who are hand tied and diplomatically isolated.

Taking the world for a long ride, Salva Kiir says one thing and does
completely the opposite on the ground. He will declare unilateral
cease-fire and launches scorch earth military offensive at the same
time. He will agree to the deployment of 4000 Regional Protection
Force but will do every thing to alter their mandates as stipulated in
the UNSC Resolution#2034 to weaken their capacity. Those who can
correctly read the Id and gut of Kiir-dit can easily tell that he is
relapsing back to his initial position that” there is no need to send
even a single UN soldier to South Sudan”. Kiir signed ARCISS with his
16 points reservations to justify dishonouring it with straight face
and uses the very agreement he has dishonoured to legitimise his junta
dubbed TGONU. As a ploy to buy legitimacy, Kiir has embarked on so
many gimmickries. Along this direction, he had to initiate a
diversionary monologue sugarcoated as national dialogue in the middle
of a raging war to avoid any inclusive political process that might
challenge his legitimacy and the validity of the ARCISS he totally
scarped since July 2016.

In tandem with his allies in the region, the international community
is diplomatically blackmailed through those gimmickries and
face-saving projects such as High Revitalisation Forum and
reunification of the SPLM under the patronage of his mentor, Kaguta
Museveni. Thence, the regional and the world leaders are left in the
cold of a lackluster diplomacy. Confused by Kiir’s regional allies and
Washington DC Pundits, the positions of the AU, TROIKA and the UN on
the resolution of South Sudanese conflict have remained ambiguous.
Even the US, which has been rhetorically the loudest against the
excesses of Kiir’s regime, does not have a well-defined foreign policy
for South Sudan and the region as things stand today. Whatever is
still in the book is that of Obama administration that acknowledged
its own failure as it exited the White House early this year. Since
then, the people of South Sudan have been left to fend for themselves
amidst scorch earth offensive, famine, economic crisis, mass
displacement, genocide and wanton death in the brutal hands of the
well known unknown gunmen in Juba. The decay of this diplomatic
discourse is underscored by the gross injustice that the helpless
victims at the receiving ended are hand tied and asked to denounce the
violence while the monster is left free to roam and roar without any
fear of reprisal.

Under the darkness of the existing state of emergency, Kiir’s hoodlums
have been left at loose liberty to engage in arbitrary arrest,
kidnaping, summary executions and long detention of citizens without
access to fair judicial process. This has created a culture of
impunity and silence eliminating the space pushing. This has then
pushed the targeted communities against the wall of armed resistance
in self-defense against the political persecution, servitude and
systematic genocide. The human security has thus drastically
deteriorated, the economy has collapsed and the living condition is
below the poverty line.

It goes without informing the records that South Sudan is precariously
on the precipice to the pendulum of immanent death as a nation. That
is why we have been calling upon the international community to come
to the rescue of our downtrodden people. The fallacy of the African p
problem, African solution has been exhausted in this case of South
Sudanese crisis. The rag-tagged mediation of IGAD has miserably failed
to resolve the crisis. Hence, it is time for the United Nations,
African Union and TRIOKA to practically intervene by using their
diplomatic leverage on the key regional players such as Uganda, Kenya,
Sudan, and Ethiopia. Only those global powers can bring it to their
attention that investing in Kiir’s tyranny is not in the best interest
of their people who are already bearing the brunt of this war in term
of refugees crisis and trade impediments.

It is time to be straight with Kiir and his allies in the region that
resolving the crisis by might of arms is a perilous false start. This
time around, the international community must look into the interest
of the people, not the almighty demigods in control of the garrison
towns. It is crucial to listen to the opposing political voices, civil
society groups, faith based groups and other national stakeholders. It
must also be realised that empowering the other political forces in
the country to balance political power is another way to bring Kiir to
the table. In any case, Kiir simply needs some heat or extreme cold in
the form of arms embargo, coordinated sanctions and diplomatic
isolation. Another long over due remedy is the establishment of Hybrid
Court for South Sudan (HCSS) to investigate and prosecute individuals
bearing criminal responsibility for war crimes to halt the existing
culture of impunity. As provided for in the defunct ARCISS, the peace
process must go hand in hand with justice and accountability. The word
as the title denotes is that the querulous language of this Hot Air
Diplomacy will not cut it with Kiir’s fascist regime.