A visit by the UN Security Council delegation this past weekend, headed by US Ambassador Samantha Power, has marked another step toward international acceptance of the replacement of First Vice President Riek Machar Teny by Taban Deng Gai, even as relations between the Security Council powers and the South Sudanese government remain in flux.
Some observers had questioned whether the guarantors of the August 2015 peace deal would recognize Taban given the controversial circumstances in which he took power. The peace deal itself says that Machar may only be replaced in the event that his post falls vacant due to “mental infirmity or physical incapacity of the office holder” (Chapter 1, Article 6.4). Kiir decreed Machar’s replacement when he was still unaccounted for and reported to be in the bush following attacks on his bodyguards in Juba.Subsequently, the USA and neighboring nations have played a crucial role in lending legitimacy to the new first vice president. The USA, Kenya and Sudan have all suggested that the replacement of Machar by Gai is legal, with Kenya and Sudan also providing official receptions for the first vice president.
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| US Secretary of State speaks with Eye Radio in Nairobi, August 22, 2016 |
John Kerry, US Secretary of State, said in remarks to media last month, “I think it’s quite clear that legally, under the agreement there is allowance for the replacement and the transition of personnel and that has been effected with the appointment of the new Vice President.”
More recently, the delegation led by US Ambassador Samantha Power reportedly indicated again the US acceptance for the appointment of Gai in private meetings this past weekend, according to the presidential spokesman Ateny Wek, who spoke to Radio Tamazuj in an interview on Monday.
“The United States sees that this is correct for implementation of the agreement... because when the Office of the Vice President was vacant it was allowed for the president to replace him with another person,” he said. “So America sees it that way, that the implementation of the agreement allowed for changing Riek Machar and replacing him with Taban Deng Gai.”
Taban and Power sat opposite to each other on the left and right of President Salva Kiir during his audience with the UNSC delegation. They also accompanied him on a tour of the exterior of J1, the presidential palace, where fighting took place in July.
USA and other countries involved in this push have spent considerable political capital in trying to secure consent for the force, which will be part of UNMISS. The South Sudanese government announced its agreement on Sunday but the next day said it would impose sharp restrictions on the force and set conditions for which countries might contribute troops.
A similar dynamic played out earlier this year after a presidential decree creating 28 new states. The US and other guarantors of the peace deal seemed unenthusiastic about the change, which was opposed by several parties to the peace deal, but they said little publicly to oppose the measure.
In view of US and regional support for Taban Deng, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), which is tasked to report on violations of the peace agreement, has taken up a middle position. Festus Mogae, JMEC chairman and former Botswana president, said in an interview with the Associated Press that the legitimacy of Taban as first vice president is questionable, but that diplomats will work with him because they “don’t have an option.”
“There is no political will to implement the agreement. They are bent on a military solution, not a political solution,” Mogae said. “I am more disillusioned or less optimistic than I was when I first came. I thought that common sense and logic could persuade them to do the right thing.”