Exclusive interview: South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar denies having own Constitution
- Details
- Category: Sudan
- Published on Tuesday, 21 June 2011 00:46
- Written by Mading Ngor, The New Sudan Vision (NSV), newsudanvision.com
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South Sudan Vice President, Riak Machar.
(Juba NSV) - Dr. Riek Machar, Vice President of the soon to be independent South Sudan broke his silence this morning over President Kiir’s recent statements, alleging Dr. Riek was circulating his own Constitution, in an exclusive phone interview with The New Sudan Vision from Washington, DC.
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“I have made my comments in the Polit-Bureau. I have also made my comments in the Council of Ministers. I have also written my comments down on the proposed Transitional Constitution. This is not a secret,” said the Vice President.
“The first person to receive my comments in writing, or who have heard them in the Polit-Bureau, and in the Council of Ministers, is our President. So there is nothing secret about that,” he added.
Dr. Riek Machar, who’s currently on a two-week visit to America, attended HIV Conference at the UN General Assembly and participated in a joint north-south Economic Commission Conference on Peace Building. He also met with members of the UN Security Council, Secretary General of UN, President of UN General Assembly, investors, and held talks with high ranking officials in Obama’s administration, he said.
Dr. Machar also stressed importance of keeping cordial economic ties between the north and the south, despite the often rocky relations between the two, to ensure stability and viability of the two soon to be separate states. “The north and the south need to work together. We may have differences, but we need to work together,” he said, adding the emerging Republic of South Sudan should significantly increase trade relations with East African countries.
On President Kiir’s recent accusation about him floating his own Constitution, the Vice President told The New Sudan Vision the following:
I have made my comments in the Polit-Bureau. I have also made my comments in the Council of Ministers. I have also written my comments down, on the proposed Transitional Constitution. This is not a secret. The first person to receive my comments in writing, or who have heard them in the Polit-Bureau, and in the Council of Ministers, is our President. So there is nothing secret about that. My comments are written down, and he has the first copy of it. They are for public consumption. Currently I am also a member of parliament. People would want to know my views. Because I knew I was going to be away, I wrote down my views over it. These are comments. They’re comments on the Constitution. It’s not a separate Constitution. They’re comments just like the Caucus of the SPLM made their comments in writing, and I also made my comments in writing. And the comments of the Political parties also was made in writing. So there is nothing about me having a different Constitution.
Dr. Machar, who was away in America when President Kiir addressed the Fifth Speakers’ Forum, said “This question should not be directed to me,” when The New Sudan Vision asked him whether it was appropriate for the President to criticize him while he was on an official visit in a foreign country.
On President Kiir’s remarks about existence of “parallelism” in GoSS, Dr. Machar disagreed.
“I know there is only one government. There is a President who was elected, and it’s Salva Kiir Mayardit, and he has his running mate Riek Machar, that’s what I know…who is his Vice President,” he said.
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