The Deal behind Riek Machar’s “House Arrest”

[Elisabeth Janaina]

The Deal behind Riek Machar’s “House Arrest”
June 27, 2017 Nyamilepedia Leave a comment

By by GERARD PRUNIER,
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)

June 27, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —— Last August , after Riak Machar had
nearly been assassinated the previous month in Juba while trying to
implement the South Sudanese “Peace Agreement” and had walked to the
Congo , he had been exfiltrated from Goma by a Sudanese plane ,
together with his wife , son and a number of top-ranking SPLM/IO
officers . This then led to a bizarre diplomatic choreography where
Riak was at first sent (at his own request) to Addis Ababa . But there
he was told he could not stay and had to go back to Khartoum . In
Khartoum he was re-deported to Ethiopia with the message that he could
not come back to Sudan . Stranded in Addis , he was finally picked up
by the South Africans who sent him to Johannesburg where he still
remains under house arrest to this day . What were the reasons behind
this bizarre ballet and why do they still matter ?

The key reason was John Kerry’s insistence that the former South Sudan
VP had to be “cleaned out” so that Salva Kiir’s picking up and
promoting Taban Deng Gai as a new VP representing the opposition
SPLM/IO within the Peace Process could be sold to international public
opinion as legitimate . By doing this , President Obama hapless
Secretary of State was trying to kill two birds with one stone : (a)
promoting the lifting of sanctions against the Sudanese regime so as
to accelerate its “normalization” , regardless of its atrocious real
behavior (b) push forward a Canada Dry version of the South Sudanese
“Peace Agreement” where the Nuer Quisling Taban Deng Gai would be
promoted as a genuine “opposition” article and finalize the so far
bloodily deficient “Peace Process”. To achieve these dubious policy
“breaks” , Kerry had a clear request : both Khartoum – hopeful for a
sanction-free US policy – and Addis Ababa – a large recipient of US
aid and diplomatic friendship – were told to cooperate ; and they both
did . But these were programmatic gesticulations , not real actions
impacting real reality .

So Khartoum kept behaving as usual , bombing civilians in the Nuba
Mountains and using chemical weapons in Darfur ; and so did Juba ,
buying more weapons in the midst of an officially-proclaimed famine
and massively killing civilians in the Equatorias . John Kerry
fluttered away , swept by the Trump hurricane , Beshir kept being
Beshir , trying to crush SPLM/N best as it could and Salva Kiir kept
being Salva Kiir , proclaiming a “national dialogue” in which he
refused the participation of the opposition . As a result , life just
went on . Delirious Trump never gave a fraction of a thought to Sudan
(does he know it exists ?) Beshir arrested more opponents and
subcontracted some Janjaweed killers to Saudi Arabia so that they
would go and kill Yemenites instead of killing migrants in the Libyan
desert (see another posting of today) and the Crisis Management
Committee (CMC , the body supposed to supervise the implementation of
the ghost August 17th 2015 “Peace Agreement” stole its own budget .
Yes . You read correctly . The CMC “Peace Committee” , true to its
South Sudanese governmental syndrome , stole its own funds and
pocketed them , sharing the loot between sixty different persons .

The CMC is presided by Juba’s Vice-President James Wani Igga and
comprises six ministers and many high level civil servants . The total
amount stolen is a modest $14.75 million at the official exchange rate
, much less if we calculate the stolen South Sudan Pounds at the rate
resulting from the roaring inflation . Adut Salva Kiir , daughter of
the President, was the top scorer who got 14 millions devalued pounds
from the kitty . Mr David Kueth, was the loser in the hierarchical
split , getting only $705 at the official rate, probably just enough
to buy some cookies for his breakfast at the black market rate . But
now General Thomas Cirillo , the only Equatorian military heavyweight
in the SPLA , jut defected . His defection is in the way of totally
remixing the cards of the rebellion and has started to question Riak
Machar’s role as symbol of the South Sudan rebellion . So the Kerry
deal does not look like it has produced the fruits the US Secretary of
State expected .