Juba denies failing to address security challenges

July 12,2013 (JUBA) – South Sudanese government vehemently denied Friday failure to effectively address violence and abuse of civilians in the country, blaming external forces for intention to destabilise the country

Information and broadcasting minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said his government has not failed to address developing security challenges but that there were external forces using individuals in the country to destabilise the country he says has always been peaceful.

“The government has not failed. It is on top of issues which concerns our people. The president has issued amnesty pardoning all the rebel groups. Some of them have responded positively and there are initiatives to bring on board those who have not responded”, Marial said Friday

Minister Marial, who doubles up as official spokesperson of the government, says his administration had established national peace and reconciliation committee to identify cause of conflict and recommend what the government should do to resolve the differences amicably.

The senior government official describes South Sudanese people as peace loving people but that external forces were using some element “pursuing individual interest” to destabilise the country in order to advance their agendas.

“Our people are peaceful loving people. They lived peacefully and they know what is happening. They know external forces are using some elements to destabilise this country”, Marial told Sudan Tribune on Friday. He did not mention those elements he said were using individuals to cause havoc in the country

He declined commenting on reports charging his administration with widespread human rights abuses and corruption, saying the government was fully committed to address all challenges.

His comments are seen as attempt to deflect public attention from discussion about the letter which US activists known as “friends of South Sudan” and aid workers warned that the new country faces “an increasingly perilous state”.

The signatories of the letter, most of whom enjoys warm relations with officials at the state department of the America government, accuses the new country of failing its own people and repeating mistakes of previous rulers before independence. The group include John Prendergast, a former director for African affairs at the White House’s National Security Council.

“We joined you in your fight against these very abuses by the Khartoum regime for many years,” the friends of South Sudan wrote in the letter addressed to President Salva Kiir Mayardit. “We cannot turn a blind eye when yesterday’s victims become today’s perpetrators,” they added.

Also, Refugees International, called on the US administration to reduce its non-emergency foreign assistance to South Sudan until the Secretary of State certifies that Juba government has made progress on halting human rights abuses by its regular army in Jonglei state.

The American advocacy group accused the South Sudanese army of committing widespread human rights violations in Pibor county, Jonglei, ranging from the killing of civilians, burning of homes, looting of property and denying aid group access to the affected civilians.

South Sudan came into being as an independent state from Sudan on July 9, 2011, after conducting a referendum in which majority of its people voted overwhelmingly for independence as part of the implementation of a 2005 peace deal that ended one of Africa’s longest civil wars.

The South Sudanese fought against the north Sudan during four decades since Sudan’s independence in 1956. The former rebels blamed Khartoum for the lack of equitable power sharing and developments as well as differences over the role of religion in the state affairs.

(ST)