U.S. ready to expand South Sudan sanctions to end violence -envoy
Thu Sep 25, 2014 11:29pm GMT
(Adds U.S. comment)
By Lesley Wroughton and Arshad Mohammed
NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The United States, frustrated with slow
progress in South Sudan's peace process, is ready to expand sanctions
against political and military figures unless warring parties end the
violence quickly, the U.S. envoy to South Sudan said on Thursday.
Ambassador Donald Booth said recent measures, including sanctions last week
against two military officers on opposite sides of the violence, were
intended to signal that the United States would not hesitate to act against
those obstructing peace.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, who is in New York for the U.N. General
Assembly, on Thursday failed to attend a meeting on the sidelines on his
country's humanitarian crisis, another senior State Department official
said.
"All of the parties who are involved in the negotiations have come to the
conclusion that if the warring parties do not take this more seriously then
we have to levy for more serious sanctions on them," the official said,
adding this was a view expressed not just by the United States.
At least 10,000 people have died and more than 1 million have fled their
homes since fierce fighting erupted in December in the capital Juba between
forces of President Salva Kiir and supporters of Riek Machar, his former
deputy and long-term political rival.
"So far the focus has been on military commanders but we're signaling ... we
are intending to continue utilizing the executive order in order to give
those who need to negotiate the thought that the U.S. is serious, that there
are consequences if this continues," Booth said in an interview.
"We will continue to move forward on this but we want to use our sanctions
in a way that doesn't foreclose negotiations but to facilitate them," he
added.
Booth said regional African countries are also ready to impose punitive
measures if peace talks continue to drag on.
Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia have all worked to end
fighting in South Sudan.
"The continuing conflict continues to undermine their interests more than
anybody else's other than the South Sudanese." Booth said. "They also
understand the danger of ungoverned or lightly governed spaces and so they
don't want to see South Sudan go in that direction."
Peace talks in South Sudan resumed last week in the Ethiopian capital and
mediators warned time was running out.
Over the next few weeks the sides are expected to flesh out details on
ending hostilities and disarming rebels groups.
The sides are working against a 45-day deadline for reaching an agreement,
although Booth suggested there was some deliberate ambiguity in the timeline
and it could be extended if there was progress in the talks.
"More importantly what is really needed in this 45-day period is to come up
with the nature, scope or the shape, as well as the functions of what the
transitional government will do," Booth said.
(Writing by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)