Kiir, Machar are ‘corrupt warlords who created ethnic conflict’ – US senator

JUBA – A United States lawmaker has referred to President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his first deputy Dr. Riek Machar Teny as “corrupt warlords who created so much ethnic conflict, bloodshed, and misery during the civil war and who have not been held accountable.”

Senator Patrick Leahy last month urged President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Machar to step down because they have failed to implement the revitalized peace agreement that the two men signed in September 2018, saying South Sudanese should choose new leaders to help them in their transition to democracy.

But the office of the president condemned his remarks and said the government in Juba is doing what it can to implement the revitalized peace agreement and urged the international community, specially the United States which is one of South Sudan’s most close friends, to support his intentions to hold elections at the end of the transitional period in 2023.

In respond to the South Sudan reaction to his remarks, Senator Leahy said “two former warlords, President Kiir and Vice President Machar – who were never elected – have dominated the political landscape in South Sudan.”

“It is they, throughout these critically important formative years, who have had the executive power, and the responsibility, to transform the aspirations of independence into tangible improvements in the lives of their people.  Ten years later it is fair to ask a simple question:  What have they done?” he question.

He said “The sad reality is that while the South Sudanese people won their independence from Sudan, they remain captives of the same ruthless and corrupt warlords who created so much ethnic conflict, bloodshed, and misery during the civil war and who have not been held accountable.”

“They simply reinvented themselves as political leaders, with a stamp of legitimacy from the international community, while continuing to act like the warlords they are and always were.”