1. SOUTH SUDAN’S RIEK MACHAR SHOULD BE BACKED
Had crookedness not taken the upper hand, South Sudan should be holding its
general election this year. But in discussions last year its President Salva Kiir
declared that he was not ready for an interim coalition government, until April 2017.
While the rebel leader Dr. Riek Machar longed for an interim coalition government
in 2014, Salva Kiir was not for that, and had the condition that he was not ready to
have Dr. Machar as a co-principal in such an arrangement.
The South Sudanese strongman has shown clearly that he is not ready to
accommodate the others in new arrangements to salvage his country. Why is he so
uncompromising? The reason is Uganda backing. Uganda under President Yoweri
Museveni is calling the shots in South Sudan. Many have had misgivings about it
until on 21st
May 2015 when the country’s military spokesman, Col. Paddy
Ankunda, admitted that they still had “Uganda’s peoples Defence Forces in South
Sudan guarding vital installations.” Of course these installations include the
presidency, army headquarters, the treasury and the oil fields. Indeed, without these
Ugandan battalions Kiir Mayardit would have been deposed in the first week of his
military purge. And because foreigners keep him in power, he must remain unduely
rigid even where national interest is at stake.
Col. Ankunda came up with these explanations when Dr. Riek Machar’s rebel forces
drowned a second military gunship which was flying Ugandan colors. The gunship
had been helping the government forces fight the rebels at Paloch oilfield near Melut
town. From the outset, Uganda has been deeply involved in the South Sudan
conflict, deploying gunship, tanks and infantry using South Sudan army uniform.
This active participation is taking place at a time when the whole world is craving
for an end to this unwarranted bloodbath.
The conclusion is that Museveni of Uganda is the reason the war would not end, the
reason so many South Sudanese have been killed, displaced or forced into exile.

2. Museveni is the reason Salva Kiir is uncompromising, and why the world has to
cough billions of dollars feeding, treating and sheltering millions of refugees and
displaced persons. In fact, Kiir has no alternative but to toe Museveni’s line for he
can even depose him.
With these revelations, as a matter of fact, I do not understand why Yoweri
Museveni should not face bans, sanctions and even be indicted at the International
Criminal Court. The world is left with a tough option, and that is that unless
Museveni is sorted out, the South Sudan issue will not be sorted out. Yet the answer
lies right within their homestead. Only an empowered Riek Machar can sort out
Museveni and his scourge of war. Machar has shown in more ways than one that he
is capable of holding them at bay, on his own. This he does in complete disregard of
the fact that a number of East African countries are basically ganging up against him,
including potential backup fire from an Asian super power. Indeed the world should
sympathize with this man Machar. With little help from those who genuinely seek
peace, he could put an end to this mad man’s war so we can see peace prevail in the
young nation. In the end everybody would be saved a lot of expense, tears, blood and
agony.
South Sudan is not poor. That is why other countries are backing Kiir. They are
assured of their compensation. The same could hold for countries or companies
backing Machar. Another advantage in backing Machar is that he seems to carry the
country along with him. That is why the government forces go into a raping and
child abducting spree whenever they have an encounter, like the one in which they
lost a gunship. They even rape the sick in hospitals. Emphatically, Machar is also
backed by the educated people and military top brass, judged by the calibre of people
who resigned when the purge against him was started. No single serious contender
for alternative leadership has emerged so far to challenge him. Only those who join
him from the government and local militia are available. He seems to have more
staying power and independent latitude than President Kiir Mayardit who seems to

3. be a hostage of Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni. It is time the world recognized Dr. Riek
Machar as the legitimate authoritative leader of South Sudan.
It is high time we stopped pretending, blaming both Kiir and Machar for the impasse
in South Sudan. That is skirting the issue of shirking responsibility. Unlike Machar,
Kiir enjoys and prefers the present unsettled circumstances, for reasons already
advanced. He and not Machar is blocking momentum toward a breakthrough. He
wants it to be in 30 months earliest April 2017. Machar is not in a position to invite
foreign countries to come to his aid. The blame for the impasse rests squarely on Kiir
and his East African backers, especially Yoweri Museveni. They are the ones
wrecking South Sudan, not Riek Machar. Indeed, Machar did very well not to give
in to their pressure as they expected, run away from the country or be rounded up for
detention and possible jail. Machar did very well to hold out, for the sake of his
people, even if they were dying and forced to stay in deplorable conditions. It is
exactly what the merciless lot were looking for: create dire conditions which would
make everybody appealing for sobriety and compromise, you yield, with such heavy
world pressure for normalcy, and they stay put. That is the trick they employed
successfully in Kenya. But Machar is street- wise, or rather bush-wise. He knows
better and future total success is his.
The nagging question is, if Kiir Mayardit is getting foreign backing involving
military aircraft and tanks, why not Machar? He has shown his mettle, the youthful
energy and passion to resist foreign dictatorship. The time to act is now because the
people’s suffering has gone past crisis levels. We should not wait for a million
people to die as happened in Rwanda. The United States and European Union must
take the initiative. Face it up with Museveni and Mayardit. Blaming both Kiir and
Machar only ends up pleasing clever Museveni. I single out the US and EU because
the African Union has scandalously failed the test. They don’t deserve even being
mentioned when it comes to resolving fundamental issues affecting Africa. In the
case of South Sudan, the AU lamentably failed. The suffering of the people, rapes
and dislocation do not seem to bother the AU. That is why the international

4. community must ignore the AU and take the initiative to rescue South Sudan.
Museveni is taking advantage of Salva Kiir’s mental and psychological insecurity to
perpetuate this ugly situation and personal domination.
Museveni is a civilian who believes ardently in soldiery. It is only through this that
he and Kiir, another hardened militarist, would be removed from South Sudan. No
peace agreements of any kind would suffice whatsoever.
BY:
FREDERICK OWINO OYARO
Email: Frederickoyaro@gmail.com