Rebels UN chief accuses Dinka community in Diaspora of tribalism

August 8, 2014 (JUBA) – The representative of the South Sudanese rebels to the United Nations in New York, Miyong Kuon, has accused the Dinka ethnic group of personalizing president Salva Kiir as their own as tribalism takes its toll in the Diaspora.

Kuon who was appointed last month by the rebel leader Riek Machar to represent the movement at the UN General Assembly on Friday said only Dinkas received president Kiir in Washington DC during his recent visit for a US-Africa Leaders’ Summit.

“President Kiir received as Dinka in Washington DC, USA,” said Kuon in a comment he posted on his Facebook account on Friday.

“Salva Kiir was received by only Dinka chanting Dinka…Dinka…in United States,” he wrote.

The comments by the rebels senior official indicated the fear in perceived extension the ethnic dimension of the conflict has taken so far for the last eight months.

A Sudan Tribune colonist, Steve Paterno, wrote on Friday that “the recent visit of President of South Sudan Salva Kiir to the USA tested the level of how much polarization exist among South Sudanese”.

South Sudan is embroiled in an ethnic based conflict pitting Salva Kiir’s Dinka ethnic group against Machar’s Nuer community although the two rival leaders downplay the ethnic lines as defining the conflict which erupted on 15 December between presidential guards.

Thousands from Nuer ethnic group were allegedly massacred by pro-Kiir’s soldiers in the first week of the violence in the capital, Juba.

Many Nuer senior politicians and army officers continue to serve in president Kiir’s government; likewise politicians and army officers from Dinka ethnic group have joined Machar’s opposition forces to fight against the Dinka-led government.

However, the rebels representative to the UN said only Dinka members in the US received president Kiir while expressing their support to him in a tribal connotation.

Over 12,000 South Sudanese in USA believed to be mainly from the majority Nuer in the foreign country signed a petition which they presented to the White House last week in protest of president Kiir’s visit to the US.

The petitioners demanded that president Kiir’s invitation should have been cancelled. Hundreds of them also took to the streets demonstrating against the visit.

Kiir was however received at the White House and held talks with the US Secretary of States, John Kerry, at the US State Department.

(ST)