A senior official in South Sudan’s foreign ministry has distanced the government from remarks made by President Salva Kiir accusing former UNMISS chief Hilde Johnson of playing a role in the escape of the former vice president, Riek Machar.
Machar fled from Juba in December 2013 and later became the leader of the rebel group SPLM-IO. He and his wife have said they were fleeing for their lives. Salva Kiir says that Machar fled after initiating a failed coup attempt.
In a speech on Monday the president accused the then head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Hilde Johnson of helping Machar to escape.
This was apparently the first time for the president to publicly accuse Johnson of helping Machar to escape, though in January he charged her with conspiring to become “co-president” and in March his government organized a demonstration in which supporters called for her expulsion.
On Tuesday, however, the undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation disowned the statement of the president.
“It is not everything which is said or heard is what should be reported. There are things which you people in the media need to understand the context first,” said the diplomat, Abdun Terkoc.
“You also need to understand that the president is a human like of any one of us to slide from the focus. So what happened yesterday was a slip of the tongue.”
Terkoc, a close political ally of President Salva Kiir, regretted that the sentiments expressed were “inconsistent” with the foreign policy of the government.
President’s exact remarks
The president’s remarks on the matter came during an address to senior party officials at a consultative meeting on Monday. He said that the former UNMISS chief not only helped Riek Machar to escape but also was his “best friend.”
As reported by Radio Tamazuj, Kiir’s exact words were:
“These are the people [UNMISS] he [Machar] has been using. The first woman who was here was the best friend of Riek Machar and was the one who took Riek Machar away from Juba. For the current one [Ellen Loej], I don’t have any comment about her because so far we have not proved that innu she is following the steps of her predecessor.”
Kiir was explaining the reasons why he chose to refuse a request by UNMISS for flight clearances to transport commanders of the SPLM-IO faction to a consultative conference in Pagak, where they were to deliberate on a proposed peace deal.
Riek Machar’s ‘escape’
Riek Machar has previously been asked directly about how he got out of Juba in December 2013 and replied: “I walked. I walked through forests and crossed at Kuda to Mangala. I then walked to Bor.”
He has said that he arrived in Bor on 24 December, when the town was still controlled by a general allied to him. Other accounts have him arriving in Bor by boat, prior to that date.
According to a human rights report by UNMISS itself, Machar “departed Juba in the early hours of 16 December,” without saying how.
The former vice president’s compound was attacked by Kiir’s personal guard – the ‘Tiger Division’ — on 17 December, after Machar had left and after his bodyguards at the house complied with orders to disarm, according to a UN human rights report.
At least ten unarmed people were shot and at least five people died, the same report says. “Multiple sources reported that the attacking security forces shot at unarmed individuals,” reads the UNMISS human rights report.
Related:
South Sudan’s Kiir equates UN-protected civilians with rebels (2 Nov.)
Peacekeeping under attack in South Sudan (I) (27 May)
Peacekeeping under attack in South Sudan (II) (27 May)