South Sudan govt blames America, Sudan over conflict

Salva Kiir PHOTO: COURTESY

GEOFFREY MOSOKU

NAIROBI, KENYA: The government of South Sudan is now accusing the international community of taking sides in the ongoing conflict.

The new allegations ahead of the peace talks slated for Addis Ababa may yet again derail the negotiations that seek to end the six-month crisis in the world newest state.

The Salva Kiir administration is specifically pointing an accusing finger at its neighbours Sudan and President Barack Obama’s US administration for fueling the crisis over selfish interests.

Juba believes that Khartoum is supplying rebels with additional fighters and arms to confirm to the world its long held view that the south was not ready for governance and self-rule.

They also believe that the West and especially the US wants an administration in place that can help them wrest the control of oil resources from Chinese firms.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Michael Lueth told reporters in Nairobi, that the west has shown bias in the conflict and reiterated his president’s remarks that the cessation of hostility agreement signed last week was under duress.

“What you are witnessing in South Sudan is a proxy war. It’s no longer the issues of rebels verses the government. Some people want to use unorthodox means to remove a democratically elected government from power; they want those who can take orders from them,” Lueth said in a forum organised by Accountability Institute dubbed Friend for South Sudan (FOSS) on Wednesday evening.

The minister who was headed to Addis added that at independence, they wanted to renegotiate all the oil contracts that were inherited from the hands of Chinese firms which he said Americans told them not to.

"Then with time, as South Sudan grows closer to China, then you see the Americans coming in and saying we need a caretaker government. They want people who can take instructions from them and we are saying as SPLM, our sovereignty is what we stick with."

At apress conference on Thursday, he claimed that already rebel leader Riek Machar and his group have promised Americans that once in power, they will help them secure oil concessions, saying that is what prompted the US to prescribe the deal that was signed so as to enhance chances of the rebels taking over.