Just in: Taban’s office regrets U.S. sanctions, citing his innocence
First Vic-President Taban Deng Gai (Photo: Supplied)
January 8th, 2020 (SSNN)—In response to today’s actions, the office of the First Vice-President, Taban Deng Gai has expressed regret over the latest measures taken by the United States, saying that the imposed U.S. sanctions were misplaced and wrongly directed towards an innocent person.
In a statement addressed to the media, the press secretary of the FVP, Agel Machar, pointed out that the decision taken by the Department of the Treasury was a snap judgement and does not carry any evidence.
“The US sanctions against the FVP of the Republic HE Gen Taban Deng Gai are as unfortunate as they are misplaced. Gen Taban Deng Gai’s records and contributions to peace building and reconciliation in South Sudan speak for itself,” Machar noted.
The press secretary argued that Taban had made a lot of achievements during his leadership as chief negotiator, trying to do his best, in spite of the challenges he was facing during the negotiation process.
“Firstly, as the then chief negotiator of SPLM/A-IO, he helped navigate the country back to peace against all the odds and the obstacles brought about by the hardliners and radicals on both sides of the conflict.
He claimed that, had it not been for Taban’s decision to choose peace over war, innocent lives would have been lost.
“Secondly, his decision to choose peace over renewed war in 2016 saved lives, the peace agreement (Now Revitalized) and the country from a potential major disaster.”
“Thirdly, he has been championing the Arusha Agreement on the Reunification of SPLM which can greatly contribute towards a more peaceful and unified country.”
“Finally, he willingly accepted to step aside from the position of first Vice President for [the] sake of peace and reconciliation. The FVP is a man of peace and the whole country and the region know that.”
U.S. sanctions against First Vic-President Taban Deng Gai
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the First Vice President of South Sudan, Taban Deng for allegedly perpetuating grave human rights violations, including the disappearance and deaths of civilians.
“In January 2017, South Sudan’s First Vice President Deng Gai reportedly advised and influenced another South Sudanese government official to execute Dong and Aggrey after they were kidnapped from Kenya. Deng ostensibly believed that by murdering Dong and Aggrey he would weaken support for opposition leader Riek Machar and thus solidify his political position within the SPLM-IO and keep his position as First Vice President. Further, Deng had reportedly arranged the abduction of Dong and Aggrey in an effort to intimidate SPLM-IO members and officials to abandon Riek Machar and return to Juba, South Sudan to support Deng. Deng had regularly sent his own security officials to monitor and plan the abduction of SPLM-IO members located outside of South Sudan, and it was believed that Deng wanted to send a clear message to all SPLM-IO members that they were not safe even outside of South Sudan and that they must support Deng,” the US said.
“Deng is being designated for being responsible for, being complicit in, or having directly/ indirectly engaged in serious human rights abuse.”
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