Salva Kiir Mayardit Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Domestic policy=== On 18 June 2013, Kiir issued an order lifting the immunity of two ministers in the national government pending investigations into an alleged corruption case in which they appeared to be implicated. He also issued an order suspending Cabinet Affairs Minister [[Deng Alor Kuol]] and Finance Minister [[Kosti Manibe Ngai]] from their duties during the entire duration of the probe. In July 2013, Kiir sacked his entire cabinet, including his vice president, [[Riek Machar]], ostensibly to reduce the size of government. However, Machar said that it was a step towards [[dictatorship]] and that he would challenge Kiir for the presidency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/video/africa/2013/07/20137287019670555.html|title=South Sudan gripped by power struggles - Africa|publisher=Al Jazeera English|access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref> He also dismissed [[Taban Deng Gai]] as Governor of Unity State. Kiir told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that [[homosexuality]] is not in the "character" of Southern Sudanese people. "It is not even something that anybody can talk about here in southern Sudan in particular. It is not there and if anybody wants to import or to export it to South Sudan, it will not get the support and it will always be condemned by everybody," he said. He then went on to refer to homosexuality as a "mental disease" and a "bastion of Western immorality".<ref name="RNW">{{cite news|url=http://www.africanactivist.org/2010/08/south-sudan-president-condemns.html|title=South Sudan President Condemns Homosexuality|publisher=African Activist News|access-date=2 June 2011|archive-date=3 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903101638/http://www.africanactivist.org/2010/08/south-sudan-president-condemns.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> # In December 2011, 6,000 [[Nuer people|Lou Nuer]] armed [[child soldier]]s attacked [[Murle people|Murle]] communities. According to investigations carried out by the UN, 800 people from both ethnic groups were killed between December 2011 and February 2012, while women and children were abducted and property was looted and destroyed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/south-sudan|title=World Report 2013: South Sudan|date=10 January 2013|publisher=Human Rights Watch|access-date=16 July 2016}}</ref> Unbeknownst to large numbers of or the entire child soldier population, Kiir planned and had decided to agree to warlike stipends from the Obama administration beginning in 2012, regardless of an American law prohibiting aid to nations utilizing child soldiers created and passed in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theintercept.com/2016/06/09/hillary-clintons-state-department-gave-south-sudans-military-a-pass-for-its-child-soldiers/|title=Hillary Clinton's State Department Gave South Sudan's Military a Pass for Its Child Soldiers|last=Turse|first=Nick|author-link=Nick Turse|date=9 June 2016|website=The Intercept|series=New Nation, Long War|publisher=First Look Media|access-date=15 July 2016}}</ref> # A lack of accountability and justice pertaining to the [[Criminal investigation|investigation]], arrest and prosecution of the individuals who carried out the violence against civilians of both the Nuer and Murle ethnic groups is widely believed to have contributed massively to, if not categorically, the [[mass murder]]s, as well as the continued perpetration of the ethnic violence.<ref name=":0" /> Kiir established a [[figurehead]] "Investigation Committee" with an ostentatious [[Mandate (politics)|mandate]] to investigate those responsible for the mass murders and murders, but as of January 2013 no finances had been allocated to the "Investigation Committee" or any of its members sworn in to commence the investigation and bring those to justice.<ref name=":0" /> # Throughout the [[Jonglei]] [[disarmament]] "Operation Restore Peace" which began in March 2012 and continued throughout the year, soldiers were ordered to and assumed the responsibility of [[extrajudicial killing]]s, severe [[battery (crime)|beatings]], binding people with rope, and torture to [[Forced confession|extract "information"]] regarding the whereabouts of weapons. ==== Consolidation of power ==== After rumours about a planned coup surfaced in Juba in late 2012, Kiir began reorganizing the senior leadership of his government, party and military on an unprecedented scale. In January 2013, he replaced the inspector general of the national police service with a lieutenant from the army, and dismissed six deputy chiefs of staff and 29 major generals in the army. In February 2013 Kiir retired an additional 117 army generals but this was viewed as troublesome in regards to a power grab by others. Kiir had also suggested that his rivals were trying to revive the rifts that had provoked infighting in the 1990s.<ref name=guardian20130724/> On 7 May 2013 Kiir dismissed legal advisor Justice [[Ajonye Perpetua]] and deputy Foreign Minister [[Elias Nyamlell Wako]]. Kiir had announced that he would no longer tolerate criticism by members of his cabinet.<ref name=crisiswatch201305>{{citation |url=https://www.crisisgroup.org/crisiswatch/database?page=1&location%5B0%5D=13&da= |publisher=International Crisis Group |date=May 2013 |accessdate=2023-09-25 |title=South Sudan}}</ref> In July, Kiir sacked his entire cabinet, leading experts to warn of upcoming "a full-blown catastrophe".<ref name=guardian20130724>{{Cite web |date=2013-07-24 |title=South Sudan president sacks cabinet in power struggle |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/24/south-sudan-salva-kiir-sacks-cabinet |access-date=2023-01-19 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> In December 2013, Kiir accused his vice President and other Party members of plotting Coup' leading him to arrest those politicians<ref>{{Cite web |title=Final report of the African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan - South Sudan {{!}} ReliefWeb |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/final-report-african-union-commission-inquiry-south-sudan |access-date=2023-01-19 |website=reliefweb.int |language=en}}</ref> ==== Murder and torture of journalists ==== Moi Peter Julius, who was a political reporter for a South Sudanese newspaper ''The Corporate'', was found murdered late on the night of 19 August 2015 in a residential area of [[Juba]] after being shot twice from behind. His murder was committed three days after Kiir publicly and officially threatened journalists, stating that "freedom of the press does not mean that you work against your country. If anybody does not know that this country will kill people, we will demonstrate on them."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://globaljournalist.org/2015/08/south-sudan-reporter-killed-in-apparent-targeted-attack/|title=South Sudan reporter killed in apparent targeted attack - Global Journalist|last=Raskauskite|first=Zivile|date=26 August 2015|website=Global Journalist|language=en-US|access-date=23 July 2016}}</ref> Earlier in 2015, five journalists by the names of Musa Mohamed (the director of the state-run radio station Raja FM), Adam Juma (reporter and presenter for Raja FM), Dalia Marko and Randa George (reporters for Raja FM), and Boutros Martin (a cameraman for the Western Bahr el Ghazal of South Sudan Television) had been murdered while traveling as part of a convoy, along with six other people. Tom Rhodes of the [[Committee to Protect Journalists]] stated after the murders that "The murder of five journalists is a devastating attack on South Sudan's already beleaguered press corps," and that "We urge Western Bahr el Ghazal authorities to do their utmost to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and to ensure journalists are allowed to carry out their duties safely."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cpj.org/2015/01/five-journalists-killed-when-gunmen-ambush-convoy-.php|title=Five journalists killed when gunmen ambush convoy in South Sudan - Committee to Protect Journalists|date=27 January 2015|website=cpj.org|publisher=Committee to Protect Journalists|access-date=23 July 2016}}</ref> At present, none of the parties responsible for ordering the murders or perpetrators of the crimes have been arrested, charged, or convicted.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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