One month from independence, a state within a state within a state in South Sudan
It looks like the violence on the border may not be the only threat to South Sudan as it approaches independence. There are apparently multiple constitutions floating around the government in Juba: South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit decried ‘mushrooming’ of unofficial Constitutions in a two-hour speech yesterday at the South Sudan Speakers’ Forum. “One ...
It looks like the violence on the border may not be the only threat to South Sudan as it approaches independence. There are apparently multiple constitutions floating around the government in Juba:
It looks like the violence on the border may not be the only threat to South Sudan as it approaches independence. There are apparently multiple constitutions floating around the government in Juba:
South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit decried ‘mushrooming’ of unofficial Constitutions in a two-hour speech yesterday at the South Sudan Speakers’ Forum.
“One Constitution, a draft Constitution, was from the Office of the Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan,” he said. “The Vice President [Mr. Riek Machar] is a member of the Executive. And he was in the SPLM Political Bureau discussion as the Vice Chairman of the SPLM, when this Constitution was passed by the Party.”
He continued. “He was also present in the Council of Ministers, and participated in the deliberations when the ministers discussed this.”
When President Kiir received a copy of the said Vice President’s Constitution, he instructed his legal advisor to “go through the points raised” in the document, against what was resolved by the Council of Ministers.
Kiir said it contradicted the resolutions of the Council of Ministers. “The Draft document that came out from the office of the Vice President was not really the official version of the document,” said Mr. Kiir in his speech, which was often interrupted by the SPLA Military Band.
“We put it aside, that this [was] something that cannot really continue to go to the Assembly because it would derail the process of people talking about the Constitution.”
But it was circulated, he said. “This shows that there is parallelism. You cannot identify. You cannot really say, is there one government or are there more than one governments?” asked Mr. Kiir. “There is no country that can be run by more than one government,” he said.
The statement is a bit ironic since the Southern Sudanese government has been run as a parallel institution with Khartoum for some time now with a number of figures, including Kiir, holding positions in both governments.
South Sudan will become formally independent on July 9. It appears increasingly likely that it will do so without a defined northern border, without a monopoly on force within its own territory, without a finalized constitution, or even a defined method for drafting one. In other words, without the most basic building blocks of statehood.
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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