Tall tale of criminal confession from S. Sudan presidency
By Stephen Par Kuol
Those who could not have read the minds of Kiir’s fascist regime for years can now read its own lips confessing war crimes and financial corruption. Ateny Wek Ateny has been well known for his pompous blusters to defend the excesses of Kiir’s J1, but this time around, the mouthpiece of the palace cabal has spontaneously spewed out that his government looted the public coffers of South Sudan to scrap the Agreement on Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS), reintroduced violence and plunged the country back to the ongoing civil war in July 2016. In legal term, this tall tale of criminal confession indicts the regime for the following serious crimes: a) embezzling public funds to commit crime of military vandalism using the state warplanes to destroy state properties b) attempted murder against the First Vice President of the Republic, C) war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
In Accordance with the Rules of Evidence in the academic textbooks, the claim that the Chief of General Staff obtained 5 million US Dollar for operation code named: “The Last Rain to Kill Riek Machar” without the consent of the Commander in Chief, Salva Kiir Mayardit is not admissible in any court of law. It is one thing to blame him for mismanaging the funds or diverting the funds to his private account, but it is another thing blaming him for failing to accomplish the criminal mission for which the funds were earmarked. Either way, it is a double offence (crime of treason and financial corruption). For the worst part, the self-incriminating confession that General Malong was fired because of the financial corruption and the atrocities he committed during the ongoing war without being prosecuted by the regime for both crimes of war and corruption only proves it beyond a reasonable doubt that the Chief of General Staff operating under the direct command of the Commander In Chief did what he did implementing Kiir’s fascist and genocidal policy he is still pursuing even long after General Malong left Bilpham.
Evidently, Malong was not dismissed for embezzling $5 million and failed to kill Riek Machar in that hot pursuit up to the Democratic Republic of Congo. What I can take with salt and pepper is the obvious fact that the cocoon cracked because Kiir did what he does best: (manufacturing coups). Like Dr Majaak Agot , Cde Pagan Amum, and Dr Riek Machar before him, General Malong is just a victim of another Kiir’s fabricated coup. It has to be recalled that Salva Kiir has always contended with plots, real and perceived, to create crisis since his bush heydays as the movement’s Chief Security. That was how he eliminated the best cadres of the SPLM/A and dismantled the founding leadership of the movement by nocking their heads with Dr John Garang, one by one until he was left alone with Dr John and then turned against him in 2004.
As for the amount of public funds embezzled, the public just needs to be informed better that this $5 million USD for the head of Dr Riek Machar is not actually plethora by J1 extravagant standards. Those are just pocket changes of the mafia lords who have converted the Presidential Palace into another branch of Central Bank opened only at night for bloody and kleptomaniac businesses. It is an open secret in South Sudan that the regime has lagged behind in paying salaries of civil servants for years simply because the bulk of our national budget funded with petro-dollars goes to Kiir’s war machine and his fat bank accounts abroad. The rest goes into the pockets of his hoodlums to guard the throne. This has been verified and confirmed by credible international financial intelligence. That is why the United States Government has imposed sanctions on the financial institutions and the private businesses of the regime’s top lords of the graft including the President himself.
Minister Michael Makuei Lueth has publicly questioned General Malong’s moral authority to speak about corruption and I agree with him, but the common questions being asked in the streets and bushes of South Sudan are: who can really speak with moral authority on issues pertaining to corruption in the regime whose palace has been scandalized by domestic thefts and embezzlement of stolen money for years? What is it that is morally left of the regime that rewards criminal convicts with high posts in the economic ministries of the national government? From Dura Saga to the list of 75 thieves, the two incidents of theft in the Presidential Save and this $5 million for the head of the First Vice President, are the people of South Sudan that fool to miss the point that the rampant corruption is led by none other than the President himself?
Compatriots, the cat has veered out of the bag!! The rest is history. Defending the indefensible will only make you the ugly face of the graft and the ongoing war of shame to keep Kiir in J1 to do nothing but killing the people and looting their resources. In any case, this tale of criminal confession has just given the people of South Sudan another ammunition to call for speedy regime change. Salva Kiir and his cronies have totally lost moral authority to speak on anything pertaining to corruption, peace and the nation building. They should just pack the loots and leave the people of South Sudan alone to fix the system and the social fabric of the society they have broken.
The author is a South Sudanese freelance writer currently passing through Khartoum. via [email protected]