INTERVIEW-South Sudan's vice president dismisses talk of military coup
Sat Oct 20, 2012 1:34am GMT
* South Sudan's vice president in New York to meet investors
* Government concerned by small rebellion in country's east
* South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July 2011
By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - South Sudan's vice president, Riek Machar,
dismissed on Friday rumors of a planned military coup, saying it would be
"unwise" for army officers to attempt a takeover of the year-old state.
The speculation was serious enough to prompt South Sudan's President Salva
Kiir to visit the headquarters of Sudan's army (SPLA) this week to warn that
any successful coup leaders would be isolated internationally, according to
the Sudan Tribune.
During a visit to New York to meet with potential investors, Machar laughed
off the rumors of a coup as not a serious threat and said that a recently
detained general had not been arrested for planning a coup, but for other
issues.
"When I first heard of it, I dismissed it," he told Reuters. "The nature of
the state of South Sudan is borne out of an exercise of (the) right to
self-determination. ... It would be unwise for military officers to say
'there is a takeover.'"
South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July 2011. The move came six
months after a referendum agreed to under a 2005 peace deal that ended
decades of civil war that left more than 2 million people dead.
Distrust between the neighbors runs deep and tensions erupted into fighting
along the border in April, when South Sudan's army briefly occupied the
Heglig oilfield, which is vital to Sudan's economy.
The two countries agreed late last month to set up a demilitarized border
zone and resume oil exports from the landlocked south after South Sudan shut
them down in a dispute with Sudan over transit fees.
The deal failed to resolve problems including where to draw the final
border, what to do with the disputed Abyei area and how to end rebellions in
both countries that each government blames the other for backing.
REBELLION CONCERN
Machar said the government was working to resolve a small two-year-old
revolt in eastern Jonglei state that has been further fueled by a
heavy-handed government bid to collect thousands of weapons left from the
civil war.
Rights groups have accused the army of shooting, torturing and raping people
during the campaign.
"All those who committed atrocities were apprehended," Machar said of those
allegations. "It did cause resentment. ... We are concerned about it. That
area is developmentally backward. We want it to join the rest of South Sudan
in development instead of being theater for conflict."
"We don't want to start a new state with a rebellion," he said of efforts to
reach peace in the east.
Machar accused Sudan of recently air dropping weapons to the rebels. He said
he hopes with the "new mood" between the neighbors that led to the oil and
border zone deal last month Sudan "will stop meddling in the affairs of
South Sudan."
Sudan's government and military routinely deny South Sudan's accusations
that Sudan is backing insurgencies.
Machar said he had been meeting with investors in New York to urge them to
spend in South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, on agriculture
to make the state the "breadbasket for East Africa."
"Our people, their expectations are so high, so great, that with the
declaration of independence they want South Sudan to be at the same level
with neighboring countries," he said. "This is our biggest challenge."
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Will Dunham)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Sat Oct 20 2012 - 17:41:51 EDT
