Mediators want South Sudan leaders to meet to end killings
Tues Apr 29, 2014 1:58pm GMT
* Triggered by political rivalry, conflict turns ethnic
* Machar-Kiir meeting would be first since fighting began
* Mediators met rebel leader at base in the bush
By Edmund Blair
NAIROBI, April 29 (Reuters) - International mediators have called on South
Sudan's rebel leader to meet his rival President Salva Kiir to prevent an
ethnic-fuelled conflict turning into a civil war or genocide, one of the
envoys who met Riek Machar last week said on Monday.
EU envoy Alexander Rondos said such a face-to-face between the rivals, which
would be the first since fighting erupted in mid-December, was essential to
end the "cycle of vengeance" and killings that has left a ceasefire agreed
in January in tatters.
"The situation is now so combustible that it has all the ingredients of an
all-out civil war in which the consequences could end up being genocidal,"
Rondos, who is the European Union's envoy to the Horn of Africa region, told
Reuters.
Fighting that initially erupted in December because of political rivalry
between the president and his sacked deputy Machar has increasingly turned
ethnic, largely pitting the president's Dinka people against the rebel
leader's Nuer.
Raising the alarm, the United Nations accused rebels of butchering civilians
when they seized the oil hub of Bentiu this month, a charge rebels deny.
Days later, Dinka residents of Bor town attacked a U.N. base where mostly
Nuers were sheltering.
Rondos was in a delegation of African, U.S, British, Norwegian and U.N.
envoys, led by the regional African grouping IGAD, that met Machar at his
base in the bush in South Sudan.
The group told Machar that he and Kiir should meet to rein in their fighters
and end the bloodshed.
"We came away with the impression that he understood the importance of
acting responsibly," Rondos said of Machar's response to the proposal. "We
await his positive reaction."
SANCTIONS CONSIDERED
Rondos said there were ongoing contacts with Kiir and the government in
Juba, and a similar proposal would be put to the president. Rondos said he
believed Kiir also understood the "time was right" for a meeting under IGAD
auspices.
He did not give details of where or when such a meeting might take place.
Neither Machar nor his officials, who usually have to be contacted by
satellite phone, could immediately be reached for comment. South Sudanese
presidential or other officials were also not picking up calls seeking
comment.
"Both sides are being given a very clear message that they cannot afford
anymore to use diversionary tactics, political or otherwise, and that the
time has come for the principals (Machar and Kiir) to be seen together and
agree on a way to prevent further violence," Rondos said by telephone from
Europe.
At the meeting with Machar in Upper Nile state, Rondos said the group also
warned the rebel leader that the international community would hold to
account all parties involved in fighting in South Sudan, where he said Kiir
and Machar were increasingly viewed as leaders of largely ethnic-oriented
military forces.
The U.N. Security Council has called for an investigation into the massacres
in Bentiu and is considering sanctions on the warring parties. Rights groups
say both sides may have committed "war crimes", a status that could lead to
prosecution.
The United Nations has approved expanding the UNMISS peacekeeping mission in
South Sudan to 12,500 troops from about 7,000 and is also reviewing the
existing mandate. UNMISS has sheltered civilians but diplomats say it lacks
teeth.
"Given the explosiveness of the situation on the ground, it now becomes an
absolute priority to have a revised U.N. mandate which allows for a robust
presence of the U.N. to protect civilians and to deter either party from
engaging in further violence," Rondos said.
A new round of peace talks between South Sudan's rebels and the government
resumed on Monday, although there has been little sign of tangible progress
despite months of on-off negotiations.