S. Sudan rebels reject government’s anti-Western sentiment
April 3, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan’s armed opposition faction led by former vice-president Riek Machar said it did not share the government’s sentiments on Western countries.
The government was angered by statements from the UN and Troika which threatened to impose targeted sanctions on individual leaders in South Sudan.
They also expressed unhappiness with the rejection of their recent move which extended the lifespan of president Kiir’s administration for three more years.
United States envoy Donald Booth was the first to reject the move, saying the government would only extend its tenure through a peace agreement with the rebel group.
Western countries have warned of these sanctions which would include travel ban, assets freeze and arms embargo should the talks fail.
In his public speeches after the collapse of the peace talks in Addis Ababa on 6 March, president Kiir however said his government would not succumb to the threats of sanctions, adding he would continue to order his troops to fight the rebels led by Machar if they dared to attack their positions.
The two warring parties have since 6 March resumed fighting in the three states of the oil-rich Upper Nile region.
His government’s outspoken information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, further attacked the Western countries, saying they did not want to see them in the peace process which is being mediated in vain for the past 14 months by the East African regional bloc of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
But the armed opposition faction of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by Machar on their part said they welcomed Troika countries and the UN to participate in the efforts to restore peace to the war-ravaged South Sudan.
“The leadership of SPLM/SPLA is not against Western countries,” Machar’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, told Sudan Tribune when contacted on Thursday.
“We would welcome their active involvement in the peace process so as to assist in restoring stability to our country,” he said.
He said the government’s rejection of western countries’ participation in the peace process showed that Juba was not serious to end the war and was therefore “indefinitely entertaining” the stalled IGAD regional mediation.
The rebel leader’s spokesman challenged the government for what he said was a double standard, saying officials in Juba always ran to the western countries for humanitarian and financial support, but would also want to run away from the latter when it came to questioning their responsibility.
“You will hear them tomorrow crying to the now rejected western countries for support. I think they are in dilemma,” he added.
Dak further claimed that Juba regime survived its own stage-managed coup because of some western countries who urged the neighbouring Uganda to immediately send troops to save president Kiir’s administration, saying they should have instead applauded the West for their 15-month old survival.
He also said the rebel group welcomed targeted sanctions against those responsible for this war and its atrocities as well as imposition of arms embargo on the government.
The government, he added, was however misleading the public as if the sanctions were to be imposed on the people of South Sudan rather than targeting their officials responsible for the crisis.
He explained that the rebel group would welcome the expanded IGAD-Plus new mediation mechanism, adding they however hoped that the resumed talks would address the root causes of the conflict for sustainable peace and not try to impose a “meaningless” peace agreement.
The IGAD-Plus peace process is expected to resume in mid-April.
(ST)