Ex-Oil minister Ezekiel Lol behind establishment of hybrid court in a trick to harm Machar – source

JUBA – South Sudan’s former Minister of Petroleum Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth is behind President Salva Kiir’s last week decision to endorse the establishment of the long-awaited hybrid court provided for in the revitalized peace agreement and the trick is to make the country’s First Vice President and SPLM-IO chairman, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, to be the court’s first defendant, sources close to the former opposition diplomat said.

The hybrid court is provided for both in the revitalized peace agreement and its 2015 predecessor, the ARCSS.

However, Kiir ‘s government has repeatedly resisted the establishment of the court and instead preferred “truth and reconciliation” arguing that mass trial of army commanders who were involved in atrocities against civilians would jeopardize the relative peace the country has achieved and return the country to war.

In June 2016, an opinion article appeared on the Washington Post, purportedly written by Kiir and Machar, calling for dismantling of the hybrid court. Machar’s office later on distanced itself from the article titled: “South Sudan Needs Truth, Not Trial“, but President Kiir’s office insisted that Machar took part in writing it.

It remains unclear why President Salva Kiir would accept, eventually, the establishment of the court that he had opposed for several years.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an interview from Juba on Monday night, a reliable source close to the ex-oil minister said Kiir had a meeting with Gatkuoth and discussed many issues including how to derail the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement and eventually eliminate Machar from the political arena in the world’s youngest country.

“There was a meeting two weeks ago and President Salva Kiir and Ezekiel Gatkuoth discussed the issue of the peace agreement. The idea to endorse the establishment of the hybrid court came from Lol and Kiir accepted it,” the source with direct knowledge of what was discussed said on condition of anonymity.

The source said the two men discussed the growing divisions within the main armed opposition group caused mainly by government intransigence to fully implement the revitalized peace agreement and more importantly the continue attacks against opposition forces and President Kiir’s rejection of General Johnson Olony Thabo to be appointed governor of Upper Nile state.

“The consensus to create the court was reached because of the potential removal of Dr. Riek Machar by the opposition commanders who are not in Juba and then they will remove Dr. Riek on the pretext that he is no longer the SPLM-IO leader and then he will be the first defendant in the court on account that he incited the 2013 violence that killed civilians in Juba and on the ‘coup’,” the source further said.