South accuses Sudan of still using dissidents to fight “proxy war”
April 16,2013 (JUBA) – South Sudan said on Tuesday that increasing internal political tensions and armed confrontation with dissidents in its troubled state of Jonglei are activities of a “proxy war”, allegedly employed by the government of neighbouring Sudan to destabilise the country.
Juba made the accusation just days after Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir, accompanied by high-level government officials, paid his first official visit to the new nation since it gained independence in July 2011.
Bashir was among a number of officials, including his South Sudanese counterpart, Salva Kiir, who pledged to work together to implement a cooperation agreement signed by both countries last September.
“We will not go back to war. President Kiir and I agreed that the war was too long”, Bashir told journalists at a joint press conference on 12 April, adding that his visit was aimed at building stronger relations and deepening the connections still shared between the two countries.
“I came to Juba because we now have the biggest chance to make peace,” he said.
However, South Sudan’s minister of information, Barnaba Marial, said his country continued to face significant challenges, including “effusive complicated security threats”, despite commitments from its northern neighbour to maintain close and friendly bilateral cooperation.
“There are some countries which are working to undermine stability of this country. They are working with people who are causing insecurity and killing innocent civilians in [a] senseless conflict. These countries are expanding their military presence in some parts of the country and are frequently making the situation tenser”, Marial told reporters in an apparent reference to Sudan
Such moves, he said, clearly violate international norms and principles relating to sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent state.
The official government spokesperson also stressed that South Sudan continued to work together with its allies and friends to consolidate efforts aimed at beefing up security measures to mitigate the threat of rebel groups.
“Dissidents colluding with [a] foreign force to fight [a] proxy war have intensified their strategy to undermine stability by wreaking havoc. They have employed every possible means to contain and control our country’s development and stability”, Marial said.
The minister was reacting to a statement made in Juba last week in which Bashir denies his government is providing support to rebels fighting the Southern government.
The South Sudanese army (SPLA) has been fighting David Yau Yau’s rebel group in Jonglei state since 2010 after he lost his bid to become an MP for the Gumruk area in Pibor county.
He briefly rejoined the government in 2011 after accepting an amnesty extended by Kiir, but restarted his rebellion last year.
“We have lot of evidence that he [Bashir] has been supporting Yau Yau. There is no doubt about that. It has been proved by independent international bodies including the United Nations and the Small Arms Survey. You see, now the support which the government of Sudan gives some militias and renegades in order destabilise this country is no longer a claim”, he said.
“Maybe if he has now decided to stop that support then we will see as the time goes along till when we will be convinced in our right time”, the minister added.
Meanwhile, the South Sudanese minister of defence, John Kong Nyuon, said on Monday that troops from the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) still remained in areas along the 2,000km disputed oil-rich border, despite clear stipulations in the implementation matrix of September’s cooperation agreement to pull back.
“We have notified the United Nations Interim Force for Abyei (UNISFA), which was given the responsibility to verify and report to the relevant authorities, including the African Union (AU) and the [UN] Security Council (UNSC) whether the two sides have fully withdrawn their forces from the designated buffer zones, of the presence of the Sudan Armed Forces from the area which they were expected to have withdrawn their troops”, Nyuon said.
Nyuon made the remarks at a meeting with border community members in Juba on Monday, during which he said his country had completed what was required by the agreement, despite the SAF’s refusal to comply.
The top defence official accused the Sudanese army of “making trouble”, adding that although it had withdrawn, its troops were still watching and constantly monitoring military activities on the border.
The dispute over contested and claimed areas – specifically the oil-processing town of Panthou, which Sudan calls Heglig, brought the two countries to the brink of war when the SPLA temporarily took control of the area in April 2012, generating international condemnation, as well as calls for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of troops and the resumption of talks.
Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal, as well as Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan all contain areas claimed by both nations. In order to diffuse tensions the two sides agreed in September to establish a Safe Demilitarised Border Zone (SDBZ) and pull their troops 10km back from a notional border line put forward by the AU mediation team.
The most contentious area remains Abyei, where a referendum had been scheduled to decide whether it would remain in Sudan or join the newly independent South. However, disagreement over who would be allowed to vote has delayed the poll for over two years.
The AU panel mediating between the two sides has suggested that the vote goes ahead in October but Sudan says the issue of voting rights is still to be resolved.
(ST)