South Sudan former detainees nominate Deng Alor for foreign affairs position

January 15, 2016 (JUBA) – A group of 10 former detainees have nominated South Sudanese former cabinet affairs minister, Deng Alor Kuol, to head the ministry of foreign affairs which they selected last week per a peace agreement signed in August 2015 to end 21 months of civil war in the country.

Kuol, from the contested region of Abyei, which is still part of Sudan, is among the group of South Sudanese politicians who were arrested in December 2013 and released in 2014 for the role they played in the debate about internal reforms and change of leadership within the governing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Another politician nominated by the group, according to a source who participated at the meeting chaired by Rebeca Nyandeng de Mabior, wife of late John Garang de Mabior, is former justice minister, John Luk Jok. He will occupy the ministry of transport which has been allocated to the group in the selection of the ministries.

Former youth, culture and sports minister, Cirino Hiteng, has been designated as the deputy foreign affairs and international cooperation minister.

Observers are keen to stress that the appointment of Kuol into a key position underlines desire of the group to reactivate discussions with the Sudanese government on the mechanisms and the way forward to implement the 2012 proposal by the African Union to settle the status of his native region of Abyei.

It is also seen as an opportunity for him and the group to lobby international support to recognize the result of 2013 Abyei community referendum which neither Sudan nor South Sudan had recognized.

The selection process which took into consideration regional, ethnic and seniority is also seen as a way to ensure political cohesion within the group and viewed as a challenge to the main rival factions whose nominations of their representatives to the transitional government of national unity have not been shared with the public or announced.

Both the government and the leadership of armed opposition under the former vice president and the first vice president designate, Riek Machar have been consulting with their members to nominate those they would like to participate in the transitional government.

The opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), however, said they will not announce names of their nominated officials for formation of a transitional government until the transitional constitution is amended and passed by parliament. Their leader, Machar, will not return to Juba until his forces are deployed in the capital per the peace agreement.

The government however wants to rush the formation of the government before constitutional amendment or deployment of forces in an attempt seen to be luring in the opposition to government positions in order to avoid implementation of some other major provisions in the agreement.

(ST)