S. Sudan says sanctions will undermine peace talks
December 11, 2014 (JUBA) – South Sudan government says looming sanctions would undermine efforts to restore peace in the country, after warring parties agreed on dialogue to end the raging conflict.
“We need help to move to the next level, not punishment”, he added.
Last month, an Australian diplomat at the United Nations, Gary Quinlan, who was head of the Security Council and they were looking “very closely” at imposing an arms embargo on South Sudan and sanctioning anyone who continues to block peace in the country.
Quinlan had expressed “frustration” with the “seeming unwillingness of the parties to abandon their commitment to their own military strategies for a military solution and engage meaningfully in the peace process.”
The United States, European Union and Canada have already frozen the assets of and imposed a travel ban on South Sudanese officials on both the government and rebel sides in the conflict.
Marial, however, said it would be unwise if sanctions are imposed against the interest of the people of the country because both sides have agreed on everything to bring peace to the country except on the issue of the structure of the proposed transitional government.
“The reason which the people who are planning these sanctions are giving is that we are not moving forward but I think they need to check with IGAD which is mediating the peace. The fact is that significant progresses have been made and we have agreed to end the conflict through peaceful dialogue,” he stressed.
“What is remaining is the structure of the transitional government, which is one of the few issues to be resolved when talks resumed next week”, added the minister.
Marial, a close ally of president Salva Kiir, was recently in the US trying to lobby for support as the Security Council mulls imposing sanctions on those frustrating efforts aimed at restoring peace in the country.
CALLS FOR ARMS EMBARGO
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) recently urged the UN, African Union and IGAD to implement targeted sanctions in an event of resumption of fighting in South Sudan, stressing that the sanctions should also include an arms embargo in the country.
The report, entitled, South Sudan: “We fear the worst”, raises concern over risk of a resumption of conflict in the coming weeks, based on series of interviews conducted.
“In a context where both parties continue to denounce respective attacks against their forces, fears were expressed over the option for a military rather than political and structural solution to the conflict,” partly reads the 32-page report.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced since violence pitting president Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar broke out last year.
(ST)