South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit
told his security officials on Friday to prepare to defend the country from
aggression from neighbouring Sudan, shortly before heading to a summit in
Ethiopia with his Sudanese counterpart, according to sources at the meetings.
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| South Sudanese President Salva Kiir |
Kiir called on the country’s citizens
to mobilise against the ground and air attacks carried out against strategic
border territories of Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal states over the past
few days.
A senior government source told Sudan
Tribune that Kiir gave the briefing before heading to the scheduled meeting
with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir in Addis Ababa later on Friday in an
internationally-backed summit aiming to end the stalemate over creating a
buffer zone to prevent a repeat of the conflict in April last year.
Implementation of the security
elements of a Cooperation Agreement signed in September could unlock other
parts of the deal, such as allowing southern oil exports to resume, which is
desperately needed for both economies.
However, following the recent border
attacks over the past two weeks, the atmosphere of mistrust that so often
scuppers these meetings is likely to persist, despite both sides indicating
that they could make compromises.
Having fought for two decades against
Bashir’s government - until a 2005 peace deal secured a self determination vote
for South Sudan in 2011 - Kiir said that he believed his nation would
"never be scared" of the Sudanese military "building troops and
huge movement of weapons along the contested areas".
Over the past weeks, South Sudan’s
army (SPLA) has accused the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) of attacking its territory
and attempting to occupy contested areas along the largely un-demarcated,
oil-rich and fertile border.
South Sudan has complained to the
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over a series of bombings and ground
clashes, which culminated on Wednesday with an SAF attack on Western Bahr el
Ghazal. Military sources have told Sudan Tribune that over 32 soldiers
and civilians were killed in the coordinated air and ground raid.
Kiir described the attack on Kitkit
military base, 119km north of Raja town, as part of continued aggression by the
Sudanese government. The border attacks were an attempt by Sudan to give Bashir
a better bargaining position at the talks, Kiir said in comments on Wednesday.
The South Sudanese military say the 2
January attack followed a clash with the Sudanese Armed Forces - aided by the
Popular Defense Forces (PDF) a Sudanese paramilitary and armed tribesmen on
horseback - on Saturday 29 December in the Sirmalaka area of Western Bahr el
Ghazal’s Raja County.
South Sudan also claimed at least five
people were killed by SAF air and ground attacks on a contested border area
between Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Sudan’s western Darfur region on 26
December.
The Sudanese army has denied attacking
the Kiir Adem area of Mile 14, but admitted that clashes occurred between the
SPLA and Al-Rizigat tribesmen in the disputed region.
Khartoum routinely denies bombing
southern territory often blaming tribal clashes or saying that it only attacks
rebels moving across the border into Sudan from South Sudan. Juba also denies
hosting or aiding Sudanese rebels and, conversely, accuses Sudan of supporting
South Sudanese rebel groups in its territory.
"We will keep talking with Sudan
and we will also have the right to protect our territories. The SPLA will do
this. It is your duty”, Kiir told high level security officers on Friday.
The president reportedly assured South
Sudan’s security organs that his negotiating team in Addis Ababa was capable of
representing the country on “all fronts” and that citizens should not have
doubts about their ability to do what was is in the country’s best interest.
Pagan Amum, South Sudan’s lead
negotiator arrived in the Ethiopian capital ahead of Kiir to prepare the ground
for discussions on the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement, which was
signed in September under mediation from the African Union High-Level
Implementation Panel (AUHIP).
“They are capable on all three fronts.
We have made progress on diplomatic, political and military and we will
continue our efforts unabated until there is victory and definitive and durable
peace for us," Kiir said.
The South Sudan leader also added that
South Sudan wishes to find peaceful solutions for the issues between the two
countries and implement the Cooperation Agreement signed in September, which
covers many of the outstanding issues between the two nations.
The September deal had appeared to
make progress on oil, citizenship and border security but it has not been
implemented due to differences over security issues - both sides accuse the
other of backing the other’s rebels. South Sudan has accused Sudan of adding
"impossible’ new demands to the security deal, including disarming rebels
north of the border that fought with the south during the 1983-2005 civil war.
"We have shown the whole world
that we are peace loving people, but I know there are people who have taken it
as our weakness. It has been misunderstood to extent that the attitude and
actions of those who repeatedly make war prove that only a strong army will
keep our dignity and safeguards the territorial integrity of our country,"
Kiir reportedly told members of his security team.
REFORM TO DIFFUSE SOUTH SUDAN’S
DISSENTING VOICES
The South Sudan leader has vowed to implement
reforms to unify the country and to diffuse internal tensions and growing
criticisms of his government.
He said the vision of his government
for the year 2013 is to “reform institutions” and that he expects security
organs to do a lot to restore trust and public confidence in their daily
activities in the country.
The
former-rebel-movement-turned-ruling-party the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement (SPLM) has governed South Sudan as an autonomous region of Sudan since
a 2005 peace deal was signed with Khartoum, but has struggled to bring the
security, development and peace dividends many South Sudanese were hoping for.
Facing the daunting challenge of
building the infrastructure of a nation almost from scratch, and with a
population where less the 30% of adults are literate, developing the country
was always going to prove difficult.
South Sudan gained full independence
in July 2011, but has had to contend with rebellions, cattle raids between
ethnic groups and the threat of a return to war with Sudan over outstanding
issues from their divorce.
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