South Sudan downplays shooting of US diplomat’s vehicle

November 16, 2014 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s police chief, Gen. Pieng Deng Kuol claimed there was never any attempt to assassinate a top United States diplomat in the capital, Juba, last month.

US ambassador Charles Twining said he was travelling in armoured diplomatic convoy when his vehicle came under fire by one of the soldiers accompanying vice president, James Wani Igga.

Two bullets reportedly hit the car leaving two big holes on its bulletproof glasses.

“That was not an assassination attempt because assassination attempt implies intention. What happened in this incident can be interpreted differently to mean different thing for different people. The government point of view about this incident is that this incident could have been avoided if the vehicle in which the US diplomat was traveling had stepped aside and stopped to allow the motorcade of the vice president to pass,” Kuol told Sudan Tribune.

“This is a universal protocol even in the United States where protection of the president, the vice president and other high ranking officials remains one of the key missions of the United States secret service,” he added.

Kuol said motorcades of the president, deputy vice president and other senior government officials who are constitutionally accorded special treatment is given way to avoid inconveniences.

“The system is that when a president, vice president and other senior government officials and ambulance carrying patients on the road, the rest move aside and allow them to pass. This is a universal protocol. It is done so to avoid inconveniences,” he said.

Kuol claimed the diplomat’s vehicle was not fired at, but only stopped to be identified.

“The report I have received is that the vehicle was stopped for identification purpose and it was allowed when it was found that it was carrying US diplomat. On our part, there was bad intention,” he told Sudan Tribune on Sunday, stressing that even America would have condoned such a bizarre incident.

South Sudan’s army spokesperson, Col. Philip Aguer, earlier denied any shots were fired at the diplomat’s vehicle, insisting a soldier instead hit it with the butt of his gun.

Relations have soured between Juba and Washington, which was behind the diplomatic push for South Sudan to break away from Sudan in 2011.

President Salva Kiir’s government is battling with an opposition faction led by his former deputy, Riek Machar, in an 11-month conflict.

Kiir has accused Washington of supporting Machar. American diplomats deny the charge.

The US has given $621 million in humanitarian aid this year to South Sudan.

Washington is threatening to sanction South Sudan due to the ongoing civil war unless the warring parties halt the fighting.

(ST)