COMMENT - The problem is the private ownership of the oil companies and the biggest banks, who are now so powerful that they can tell governments what to do. The entire breakup of Sudan was to benefit the neocolonial elite that owns these corporations. There has to be international agreement with real consequences for violation of the law, that puts the ownership of natural resources permanently into the hands of the people of the country collectively, so they cannot be sold for cents on the dollar by a neoliberal politician looking for a bribe, by a finance minister who is eyeing a job at the World Bank, IMF or similar institutions, and by transnational corporations which will even overthrow governments to get a better deal, and have. Public resources must permanently, right to the point of sale, rest in the hands of the people of country. Which would also eliminate 99% of all 'wars' on the continent.
(SF Bay View) South Sudan: African Union commission says oil resources must benefit the people for lasting peace
August 30, 2015
by
Ann Garrison
KPFA Weekend News broadcast Aug. 22, 2015
Audio Player
Professor Horace Campbell says the recommendations of
the African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan, which include
using the country’s oil wealth to benefit its people,
must be implemented if there is to be any hope of lasting peace.
South Sudan children, web
Transcript
KPFA Evening News Anchor Sharon Sobotta: The warring parties in South Sudan’s 20-month civil war signed a peace agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, earlier this week. The civil war which began in December of 2013 has cost more lives than anyone can precisely estimate now and uprooted over 2 million South Sudanese people.
However, seven previous ceasefire agreements have already failed. Dr. Horace Campbell is a Syracuse University Professor of African American Studies who spoke with KPFA’s Ann Garrison.
South Sudan mapKPFA/Ann Garrison: When President Obama sat down to talk about bringing peace to South Sudan with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Ugandan President Yoweri Museven, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour and … Nkosazana …
Horace Campbell: Dlamini-Zuma.
KPFA: OK, thank you. … chairwoman of the African Union, you said, on Democracy Now, that everyone at the table, except Mrs. Zuma, was compromised. Can you elaborate on what you meant by that?
Horace Campbell: What I meant by that is that the looting of South Sudan has gone on since independence, in the past four years. When the economy of South Sudan was part of the Sudan, the oil revenues were about $50-100 billion per year.
The reporting we have from South Sudan is that the economy is now based on $5 billion. That $5 billion from the oil – and 90 percent of the economy is based on petroleum resources – is not being used in South Sudan for the health, welfare, water supply and education of the people.
It is being looted in collaboration with the regional leaders of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and members of the Sudanese elite. Ethiopia is heavily invested in hotels, Uganda in food, Kenya in banking and telecommunications.
And so the situation in South Sudan is one where the leaders have no accountability to the people of the South Sudan and they have money and property in Uganda, in Nairobi and in Addis Ababa. And the resources for the South Sudan should be used for the people of South Sudan so that they can have a better quality of life.
The African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan says that oil resources must benefit the people.
The African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan says that oil resources must benefit the people.
KPFA: This is what I’ve noticed from the very beginning. When I first started reporting on this in December 2013, I tried to figure out what was going on and I spoke to Mabior Garang de Mabior, the son of John Garang, and he said that the conflict had turned attention to the suffering of South Sudanese, but that they had been suffering like refugees before the conflict, because the oil revenues were not reaching them.
Horace Campbell: And it will not reach them now, because the institutions in the South Sudan are not organized for the well-being of the people. South Sudan is run by the military; it is run by international NGOs and a Parliament that does not have real power.
And that is why I am in agreement with the recommendations of the African Union, which recommended a transitional period with three distinctive features:
a high level oversight panel to guide the period of transition,
a transitional government that excludes those politically accountable for the crisis, and
a transitional government that addresses the questions of justice in different forms.
And one of the key areas they spoke about in terms of justice in different forms was that oversight of the resources from the African Development Bank, so that the infrastructure, the health and the well-being of the people of South Sudan is taken care of.
KPFA: That was Syracuse University Professor Horace Campbell, the author of many books and articles on Africa, most recently “Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa in the Forging of African Unity.”
With regard to the international NGOs running South Sudan in a way that deprives the South Sudanese people, Campbell cited, in particular, the ENOUGH Project to “End Mass Atrocities and Crimes Against Humanity” founded by security state professional John Prendergast and USAID chair nominee Gayle Smith.
In Berkeley, for Pacifica, KPFA and AfrobeatRadio, I’m Ann Garrison.
Oakland writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Black Agenda Report, Black Star News, Counterpunch and her own website, Ann Garrison, and produces for AfrobeatRadio on WBAI-NYC, KPFA Evening News, KPFA Flashpoints and for her own YouTube Channel, AnnieGetYourGang. She can be reached at anniegarrison@gmail.com. In March 2014 she was awarded the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for promoting peace in the Great Lakes Region of Africa through her reporting.
Labels: ANN GARRISON, CIA, HORACE CAMPBELL, NEOCOLONIALISM, OIL, SOUTH SUDAN
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(GLOBALRESEARCH) South Sudan, Central African Republic Targeted for US Political and Military Intervention
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Global Research, January 14, 2014
U.S. admits that military advisers are functioning in Somalia
Fierce battles have taken place in two states in South Sudan. Unity state, an oil-producing area, was retaken by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
Other gains in Jonglei state by Juba around the capital of Bor have occurred with the assistance of the Ugandan military during the first full week of January. (Associated Press, January 8)
The intervention of Uganda, a close political and military ally of the United States, demonstrates the side in the conflict in which Washington has taken. There has been increased military and political pressure on the forces loyal to ousted Vice-President Riek Machar to drop demands for the release of political prisoners and to declare a ceasefire along with the government of President Salva Kiir.
In Jonglei state, the capital of Bor is poised for an attack by the SPLA in order to drive out the final bastion of control by the dissidents loyal to Machar within key areas inside the country. On January 12 it was announced by the U.S. State Department that a special envoy had met with Machar to urge him to reach accommodation with Kiir. (BBC, January 12)
Earlier in the week on January 6, Republic of Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir visited Juba the capital of South Sudan. He held talks with his counterpart Salva Kiir on developments involving the factional power struggle that erupted on December 15 in Juba.
Later reports indicated that there was a secret agreement between Bashir and Kiir to form a joint military force to contain the expansion of territory controlled by the units of the SPLA that are aligned with Machar. Bashir denied that such an agreement had been reached with South Sudan. (Sudan Tribune, January 12)
Nonetheless on January 11 the spokesperson for the SPLA acknowledged reports that forces loyal to Machar were prevented from entering the Republic of Sudan around the oil-producing area of Heglig. The dissident troops under the command of Machar denied that such an incident took place.
According to Phillip Aguer, the spokesperson for South Sudan army (SPLA) confirmed reports from his Sudanese counterpart, saying they are still pursuing remnants of the Machar-allied forces. “We have reports that some of those who fled towards Sudan have reported themselves to Heglig. And we are told some have been disarmed by the Sudan Armed Forces. Other refused and retreated”, he told the Sudan Tribune.
Aguer said the Sudanese Armed Forces had tracked down a number of them in Karasana, north of Heglig, saying, “They reached there yesterday [Friday, January 10] evening”.
Central African Republic Government Removed at Regional Meeting
Also in the neighboring Central African Republic the government of interim President Michel Djotodia was forced to resign during a meeting with regional leaders on January 10 in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. The entire regional council appointed by Djotodia last year was flown to Chad where France and the host country’s government expressed their deep dissatisfaction with developments inside the CAR.
After the announcement of Djotodia’s removal, there were scenes of jubilation in the streets of Bangui, the capital. An effort to broker a truce between the Muslim former Seleka coalition groupings and the Christian-dominated Anti-Balaka militias took place on January 11. (AFP, January 12)
Although groups within the respective camps pledged to work together to repair the damage done to the country since last March, there were reports of fighting throughout the weekend. Some mosques were reportedly looted as Christian youth sought to exact revenge on what was perceived as a Djotodia regime that represented the Muslims who total 15 percent of the population in the country of 4.7 million people.
France has deployed 1,600 troops to the CAR which has drawn the scorn of Muslim community. Chad has approximately 800 troops along with other forces from the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville).
Paris has continued to appeal to the United Nations Security Council for additional peacekeeping soldiers. A report surfaced that the European Union would possibly send a contingent of troops to the CAR as well.
Both the CAR and South Sudan are a reflection of the crisis in the post-colonial and neo-colonial state in Africa. Imperialism still dominates the economic relations of production inside its former colonies. France and the U.S., which is supporting President Francois Hollande’s military interventions in Africa, are seeking broader avenues of economic exploitation on the continent.
U.S. Admits to Military Advisers in Somalia
The Pentagon also revealed in the Washington Post during early January that it has military advisers operating in the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia. This comes as no surprise to anti-imperialists who have followed the situation inside the country for the last two decades.
Even though U.S. Marines were forced to withdraw from Somalia during 1993-94, they have maintained a presence through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Special Forces for many subsequent years. The CIA maintains an office in the capital of Mogadishu and a drone station exists in Somalia which is coordinated with similar operations throughout the Horn of Africa region out into the Indian Ocean islands Seychelles.
Over 20,000 troops are occupying Somalia with the full financial, intelligence, diplomatic and military support of Washington. The African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) is staffed largely by troops from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Sierra Leone, states that are closely aligned with the U.S. and Britain.
The ongoing factional conflicts in Central and East Africa provide a rationale for the deepening of military involvement by the U.S. and other imperialist states and their allies. The Kenyan Defense Forces, which has several thousand troops in southern Somalia, was reported to have carried out aerial bombardments of areas in the region where the Al-Shabaab Islamic resistance organization has bases. (BBC, January 10)
These interventions will continue until an anti-imperialist foreign policy is adopted by the majority of African Union member-states. The genuine independence of Africa cannot occur as long as the various military apparatuses of the nation-states are controlled and directed by the imperatives of imperialism.
Interventions by the imperialist states in Africa and in other parts of the world are not a reflection of their strength but of their weaknesses. The crisis in world capitalism provides very few alternatives to war abroad and increasing economic exploitation and repression within their own borders.
By Abayomi Azikiwe Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, SOUTH SUDAN, SUDAN
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(LAND DESTROYER REPORT, RT) Who is to blame for the crisis in South Sudan?
COMMENT As well as Glencore International, which now has a PPP with the South Sudanese state's NILEPET, called PETRONILE. Also, there is 'trouble at mill', as there seem to be some kind of renegotiations going on. Maybe that is what the current strife is about - a shifting of allegiances by Glencore International towards Riek Machar. It will be interesting to see if RM wants to reinstate the old oil deal with Glencore. What is telling, is that the latest changes of the guard all come from within the government. Salva Kiir was the righthand man of Johnny Garang, Riek Machar is the righthand man of Salva Kiir. Plenty of space for eternal manipulation. - MrK
The nascent civil war in South Sudan is a product of kleptocratic governance, systemic corruption, and political posturing that has reignited deep ethnic divisions between the nation’s two largest tribal groups.
(Nile Bowie - RT) - The world’s youngest nation has been in disarray since December 14th, when sporadic gunfire and skirmishes broke out in the capital, Juba. Shortly after, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir announced that a coup had been attempted by members of his own presidential guard allied with Riek Machar, the ambitious former vice president who was purged in July. Since then, the country has been destabilized by fighting between government forces and members of the army loyal to Machar, forcing tens of thousands to abandon their homes and seek shelter in squalid UN bases throughout the country. Reports indicate that rebels have captured swathes of territory, including areas such as Bentiu, a northern provincial capital in the country’s most oil-rich region, and other economically strategic areas. Kiir belongs to the Dinka – the country’s most powerful and populous ethnic group – while Machar is ethnically Nuer, and sources claim that brutal ethnic violence has broken out between the two groups with heavy involvement by government forces.
Juba has insisted that its forces have only protected civilians and have not taken part in massacres, despite numerous reports of security forces arbitrarily targeting civilians belonging to the Nuer ethnic group. The resulting violence has prompted the UN to add nearly 6,000 international troops and police officers to the more than 7,600 peacekeeping forces already in the country.
The United States – which has been South Sudan’s main political backer prior to and since its independence in 2011 – has firmly declared their support for Kiir’s government and warned the rebels against attempts to seize power through military force. Though the current crisis has undeniable ethnic dimensions that have reemerged as a consequence of historically unsettled animosity between the Dinka and Nuer people, the crux of the problem is political. The rampant corruption and misuse of governmental authority in political and economic affairs has divided the ruling party (the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement or SPLM), while the state’s inability to provide basic services and alleviate poverty has created widespread disenchantment in a society that was largely optimistic that independence would bring lasting peace.
Salva Kiir’s ‘Dinkocracy’
Critics of President Kiir, who enjoys sweeping constitutional authority, accuse him of ruling the country like a tyrant when he unexpectedly purged former vice president Machar and his entire Cabinet after Machar announced plans to challenge Kiir in the 2015 presidential elections. Kiir’s relations with dissenting factions of the SPLM have steadily deteriorated since the purge, including with party heavyweight, Pagan Amum, who has been the South’s chief negotiator with the Sudanese government in Khartoum on separation issues and border disputes after independence. Kiir, perhaps attempting to hedge against growing discontent toward his rule, forced more than 100 army generals into retirement in an effort to bring more loyal figures into the military. These features of Kiir’s one-man-rule have contributed to the creation of a disgruntled faction in the army that backs Riek Machar, including a renegade faction of the army led by General Peter Gatdet Yak, whose forces stormed SPLA bases in Jonglei state and took full control of military equipment and heavy weapons.
President Salva Kiir & former VP Riek Machar
In such a diversely heterogeneous state, the increasing ethnic dimension of this conflict is a testament to Kiir’s failure to build an inclusive and representative political order. Rather, many complain that Kiir has reinforced the Dinka tribe's influence over political, military, and economic affairs. Abhorrent levels of corruption have triggered mass distrust in the political system; reports indicate that thousands of fake names have been found on security payrolls and the government admits that officials have stolen some $4 billion dollars from its coffers. Riek Machar’s credentials are hardly any better; he is seen as an opportunist for siding with the Sudanese government in Khartoum at various times during the civil war that raged for two decades prior to South Sudan’s secession. Furthermore, he is historically accused of exploiting ethnic relations as a means of mobilizing support for his own factions. Machar is not a rebel leader controlling an organized opposition structure by any means; disgruntled factions have allied with him over their discontent with the way Kiir has been running the country. The thousands of people who have taken refuge in UN bases throughout the country – even in the capital – is a telling sign of how little faith people have in proper governance and the army’s ability to protect them.
A question the West should be asking…
The SPLM has received support from the US and Israel throughout the duration of the civil war fought between southern rebels and Khartoum, which has historically had unfriendly relations with the West and has moved very closely to China in recent times to jointly develop the country’s oil wealth prior to the separation. Romantic notions for self-determination did not motivate the West to support southern secession; the objective was to partition Sudan and deprive Khartoum of economically relevant territory in the south where most of the oil fields lie. In exchange for the financial, material, political, and diplomatic support received from the West, the new government in Juba endorsed a ‘Faustian pact’ with its sponsors to open its economy to international finance capital and multinational interests. The government in Juba even applied for IMF membership before it had even officially gained independence from Sudan.
Despite supporting the South’s independence with diplomatic muscle and military aid, the United States has been unable to gain a foothold in the country’s oil sector; Juba’s crippled economy remains dominated by Asian companies, primarily from China.
South Sudan must rely on pipelines that run through Khartoum to export its oil, and the two countries produced around 115,000 barrels of oil per day in 2012, less than half the volume produced in the years before South Sudan's independence. Both sides have nearly gone to war over disputed oil fields that straddle a poorly demarcated border. Judging from the poor economic performance of both countries since the partition and the dramatic loss of the life in the ongoing crisis, the experiment of South Sudanese independence is failing.
Those countries that supported the partition of a unified Sudan for narrow economic and geopolitical interests have failed by off-shoring their nation-building responsibilities to multinationals and investors who lack interest and confidence in developing anything outside the oil sector. It has created a situation where state-officials loot billions while food insecurity is rampant throughout the country. In effect, the foreign-sponsors of the SPLM have encouraged a system of ‘trickle-down economics’ without the trickle-down, which is an inseparable dimension to the current political crisis. It would be highly unlikely that the US would renege on their support for Juba, or scale back weapons sales or military aid, even if Salva Kiir continues running the country like a ‘president-for-life’.
As South Sudan stands on the precipice of a brutal civil war, policy-makers and pundits in the West should ask themselves if supporting dialogue and reconciliation between parties in a unified Sudan would have been wiser than supporting the birth of a nation that has been marred by instability since its inception.
This article originally appeared on RT.com
Nile Bowie is a Malaysia-based political analyst and a columnist with Russia Today. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.
Labels: RIEK MACHAR, SALVA KIIR, SOUTH SUDAN, SUDAN
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(LAND DESTROYER REPORT) The Plundering of South Sudan
US AFRICOM, Israel, and Uganda's Dictator-for-Life Yoweri Museveni set up in South Sudan, inflame conflict, push out China and prepare to take over oil.
January 9, 2014 (LD) - RT's report
"Who is to blame for the crisis in South Sudan?" gave a succinct background on the warring factions inside the new "nation" of South Sudan and the Western genesis of the conflict. The report would state:
The SPLM has received support from the US and Israel throughout the duration of the civil war fought between southern rebels and Khartoum, which has historically had unfriendly relations with the West and has moved very closely to China in recent times to jointly develop the country’s oil wealth prior to the separation. Romantic notions for self-determination did not motivate the West to support southern secession; the objective was to partition Sudan and deprive Khartoum of economically relevant territory in the south where most of the oil fields lie. In exchange for the financial, material, political, and diplomatic support received from the West, the new government in Juba endorsed a ‘Faustian pact’ with its sponsors to open its economy to international finance capital and multinational interests. The government in Juba even applied for IMF membership before it had even officially gained independence from Sudan.
The piece would continue by laying out the current dilemma for the West:
Despite supporting the South’s independence with diplomatic muscle and military aid, the United States has been unable to gain a foothold in the country’s oil sector; Juba’s crippled economy remains dominated by Asian companies, primarily from China. South Sudan must rely on pipelines that run through Khartoum to export its oil, and the two countries produced around 115,000 barrels of oil per day in 2012, less than half the volume produced in the years before South Sudan's independence. Both sides have nearly gone to war over disputed oil fields that straddle a poorly demarcated border. Judging from the poor economic performance of both countries since the partition and the dramatic loss of the life in the ongoing crisis, the experiment of South Sudanese independence is failing.
Image: Violence predictably is centered around currently
Chinese-controlled oil infrastructure. The goal is to have
violence drive the Chinese out just as was done by NATO
in Libya.
The piece would go on to note that peace deals reached leaving Sudan intact could have avoided the deadly conflict now raging - and that of course is correct. However, peace is not and never was the goal of the West and its involvement in Africa - economic gain is.
Precisely because China still maintains extensive holdings in Sudan and South Sudan's oil infrastructure, the conflict will be brought to a fevered pitch - and unsurprisingly the conflict's epicenter corresponds with South Sudan's primary oil producing regions. If and when the Chinese are pushed out of South Sudan, the West will continue either across the border to establish routes for exporting their newly gained oil wealth from the landlocked country, or proceed through Kenya with or without the current government in Nairobi's backing.
The BBC would report in their article, "China's oil fears over South Sudan fighting," that (emphasis added):
The stakes could not be higher for China, the largest investor in South Sudan's oil sector, as fierce fighting continues between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those of his former deputy.
Some of the largest oil fields China operates are in areas controlled by fighters backing Riek Machar, the country's vice-president until he was sacked in July.
Oil production has already dropped by 20% since the onset of the conflict three weeks ago and more than 300 Chinese workers have been evacuated.
The spectre of their Libyan experience also weighs heavily on the Chinese minds - project after project now lies deserted because of heavy fighting during the Arab Spring uprising of 2011, inflicting huge losses on China.
Most telling of all is the BBC's reference to Libya - another nation destroyed by Western military aggression that saw both Russian and Chinese interests crumble overnight and replaced by Western corporations. While South Sudan's chaos is being orchestrated more covertly by the West, the final goal of pushing out the Chinese and taking over is the same.
Similar covert destabilization can be seen all across what the 2006 Strategic Studies Institute's report "String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China's Rising Power across the Asian Littoral" calls China's "String of Perals." This includes US-backed militants attempting to carve off the province of Baluchistan from Pakistan where China has established a port at Gwadar and at another Chinese port in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar that has been the scene of brutal, genocidal violence carried out by "democracy icon" Aung San Suu Kyi's "saffron monks" against Rohingya refugees.
Setting Up Shop in South Sudan
There is no doubt that the US and its accomplices Israel and Uganda have decided to stay in South Sudan. The US corporate foundation-funded "Enough Project" provided the rhetorical justification for an enduring presence in the war-torn African state in its Al Jazeera op-ed titled, "Al Jazeera America Op-ed: South Sudan’s Salva Kiir needs to put his black hat back on," which stated:
To be sure, growing pains are common in societies working to secure their independence after years of marginalization and authoritarian rule. Building a cohesive national identity among South Sudan’s 81 ethnic groups will take generations. Still, the looming specters of mass intercommunal violence means we cannot afford to be complacent. The United States committed itself to the South Sudanese people’s long march toward independence decades ago. It would be a shame if America allowed a return to war when the South Sudanese are so close to securing their future.
With that humanitarian/freedom-promoting foot-in-the-door, the West has the pretext it needs to meddle for decades to come.
To begin with, Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) signed what it called a "water infrastructure and technology development" deal with South Sudan's government in 2012. The deal allegedly covers desalination, irrigation, water transport and purification, but a visit to Israel Military Industries Ltd. website indicates they are military contractors and arms manufacturers, not engineers and certainly not specialists in water infrastructure. Other sources claim IMI will serve as a conduit for actual Israeli water firms - but in light of US, Israeli, Saudi, and Qatari joint operations elsewhere, IMI will most likely serve as a conduit for weapons, cash, and conflict as well (or instead).
Image: It is not entirely clear how a military contractor and weapons manufacturer like Israel's IMI is going to develop South Sudan's water infrastructure. Just like Qatar's use of humanitarian aid groups to smuggle weapons into Syria, Israel is most likely using "development" as cover for perpetuating conflict both within South Sudan to drive out the Chinese, as well as across the border in Sudan to the north to finally topple the government in Khartoum.
....
In 2013, Israel and South Sudan would begin forging oil deals. In UPI's report, "South Sudan signs oil deal with Israel," it was stated:
South Sudan says it has signed an agreement with several Israeli oil companies, a potentially significant strategic move that will consolidate the Jewish state's relations with the fledgling, oil-rich East African state.
UPI would continue, highlighting the glaring problem of actually exporting the oil to turn a profit:
South Sudan's petroleum and mining minister, Dhieu Dau, announced the oil deal last week after he returned from a visit to Israel.
He said negotiations were ongoing with Israeli companies, which he did not identify, seeking to invest in South Sudan.
Dau indicated the southern government in Juba, ramshackle capital of the infant state, hoped to export oil to Israel, but observed that this could not happen before March.
He gave no indication how the landlocked south would achieve this, or what volume of crude would be involved. But it's a move Khartoum would do everything possible to wreck.
Finally, the UPI report indicates the much larger implications of Israel's (and the US') involvement in South Sudan, using it as a springboard to topple neighboring Sudan in the north:
The prospect of Israel actually getting oil from South Sudan remains uncertain, given Juba's difficulties with Khartoum.
There has been talk of building a 1,000-mile export pipeline from South Sudan across Kenya to the Indian Ocean that would free Juba from reliance on Khartoum's pipelines.
But no definite plans for the project, expected to cost around $2 billion, have yet materialized.
It may be that Israeli companies are seeking to help out in that regard -- if only to undermine the Islamic-oriented Khartoum regime and its alliance with Tehran, and to gain access to the Nile River, Egypt's primary source of water and a strategic target.
During Sudan's civil war, one of Africa's longest conflicts in which some 2 million people died, Israel provided the southern rebels with arms, training and funding, as it has done in other parts of Africa seeking to weaken its Arab adversaries.
Clearly, the presence of Israeli arms dealers is not to develop South Sudan's infrastructure but rather to flood the region with weapons to flush out the Chinese and eventually stab northward toward Sudan and its capital of Khartoum. UPI's report would go on to admit that military aid was still undoubtedly flowing to South Sudan for this very purpose.
In addition to a proxy military confrontation with Sudan, the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have been attempting to overthrow the government in Khartoum from within - attempting an "Arab Spring-style" uprising in late 2013 that eventually fizzled.
Enter US AFRICOM and Uganda's Museveni
Infamous Western collaborator and Ugandan dictator-for-life Yoweri Museveni has been fighting the West's proxy wars in Africa for decades. He has also done much within his borders to appease the West including selling large tracts of land to foreign developers right out from beneath the feet of his own people - many times killing landowners who refused eviction.
Image: Whatever pretext the West attempts to use to place Western troops inside of Africa while Fortune 500 corporations scoop up the continent's vast resources, it is nothing more than modern recolonization. US troops placed in Uganda to fight "Kony" are now conveniently in place to aid in the despoiling of neighboring South Sudan - a state carved out of proper Sudan via Western-fueled civil war.
....
In 2011 under the false pretext of fighting Joseph Kony's "Lord's Resistance Army" the US would begin deploying troops to Uganda. By 2013, these troops would still be there - when violence began to spread across nearby South Sudan, US troops conveniently still stationed in Uganda would be mobilized for the evacuation of US citizens. Stars and Stripes would report in their article, "Marines airlift US Embassy personnel out of South Sudan," that:
Nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel were evacuated Friday from South Sudan aboard two KC-130 aircraft assigned to a Marine crisis response team positioned in nearby Uganda.
The article would also report:
Last week, the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response also was pre-positioned at Entebbe, Uganda, to provide additional support. The unit, from Moron, Spain, was formed less than a year ago to bolster AFRICOM’s crisis-response capabilities.
Uganda, like Sudan, has clearly been permanently brought into AFRICOM's fold under an initial false "humanitarian" pretext that was then quietly shifted to the permanent occupation of African territory. And Uganda not only serves as a base for US AFRICOM, but is also using its soldiers to carry out AFRICOM's objectives beyond Uganda's borders.
The Guardian would report in its recent article, "South Sudan peace talks falter as Uganda sends in troops," that:
The South Sudan peace talks being held in Ethiopia have stalled, officials say, as a rebel commander claims big victories against the South Sudanese government and Uganda sends in more troops and military hardware.
The report would also claim:
Uganda, he said, had sent 1,200 troops to secure installations such as the airport and state house, adding that Ugandan military aircraft had bombed several rebel-held positions.
Uganda says its deployment of more troops and military hardware to Juba this week came at the request of Kiir. Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Ankunda, a Ugandan military spokesman, said on Wednesday that reinforcements were dispatched on Monday and Tuesday "to plug security gaps". He denied the Ugandans were actively involved in combat.
Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, is a strong ally of Kiir. The neighbouring countries have built a bond that goes back to South Sudan's armed struggle for independence from Sudan and the Khartoum government. Museveni recently warned Machar that East African countries would unite to defeat him militarily if he does not agree to attend peace talks.
In essence, Uganda is providing the manpower on the ground while the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others provide the cash, weapons, and everything else. It is another proxy war, just like the ongoing conflict in Syria, albeit with Ugandan troops literally invading South Sudan to prop up the West's proxy government in Juba.
Who is funding and arming rebel groups fighting the West's proxy government is still unclear. Reports indicate it may be dissident factions of South Sudan's own armed forces involved in a recent coup attempt. Other theories suggest that US, Uganda, and/or Israel may be funding and arming both sides hoping to carry the conflict onward to Khartoum. It is clear that Khartoum, Sudan, one way or another, is the US-Israeli-Saudi-Qatari goal - to complete the theft of Sudanese oil as well as the means to export it out of the broken, worn-torn, decimated country.
This is the current state of the Wall Street-London global order in Africa - and a tattered, exploited Africa in our future should this state persist.
Labels: AFRICOM, NEOCOLONIALISM, SOUTH SUDAN, SUDAN, UGANDA, YOWERI MUSEVENI
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(BLACK STAR NEWS) U.S. Calls On South Sudan's Kiir To Release Machar's Allies For Addis Peace Talks
Milton Allimadi
January 04,2014
The United States has called on South Sudan's President Salva Kiir to immediately release Former Vice President Riek Machar's colleagues so that the Addis Abbaba peace talks to end fighting can "be meaningful and productive."
The conflict in South Sudan erupted December 15 as a power struggle between Kiir and Machar but has quickly taken on an ugly ethnic dimension with Kiir's armed supporters attacking Nuers and Machar's backers targeting Dinkas.
There are no firm estimates of people killed although the 1,000 figure has been widely used; more than 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes and many sought shelter at UN barracks.
Machar has denied Kiir's accusations that he'd tried to stage a coup, sparking the fighting. In a report on Sudan Tribune Machar claims his forces are now marching to seize Juba, the capital city.
The U.S. has warned against any attempted military solution to what it's terms a political conflict. In a statement today, The U.S. Department of State supported Machar's earlier demands that his political allies who have been detained by Kiir be released so they can take part in the peace talks.
"We urge the Government of South Sudan to uphold its commitments and release political detainees immediately. To be meaningful and productive, discussions of political issues requires the presence of the senior SPLM members currently detained in Juba, among others," the statement, released by Marie Harf, deputy State Department spokesperson, said.
Machar had made his side's participation on the talks conditional on the release of his colleagues. Machar's allies include Pagan Amum, the former ruling SPLM's Secretary General and the chief negotiator during dispute with Sudan that had led to the temporary halt in oil exports; pipelines run through Sudan.
"These talks are of critical importance to the people of South Sudan. There can be no military solution to this conflict. Forging a durable and lasting peace depends on resolving the underlying political causes of the conflict. Special Envoy Booth's presence at the talks in Addis Abbaba underscores our enduring commitment to peace, reconciliation, and a unified, democratic South Sudan," the statement adds, referring to U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, Donald E. Booth.
"The parties must use these talks to make rapid, tangible progress on a cessation of hostilities, humanitarian access, and the status of political detainees," the statement also said.
Labels: JOHN KERRY, RIEK MACHAR, SALVA KIIR, SOUTH SUDAN, SUDAN
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(NEWZIMBABWE, REUTERS) Emergency declared in South Sudan
02/01/2014 00:00:00
by Reuters
COMMENT - Why are all these sellouts wearing cowboy hats? To signify that they have sold out to the United States camp? - MrK
Negotiators prepare for peace talks with rebels ... President Salva Kiir
SOUTH Sudanese President Salva Kiir declared a state of emergency in two states on Wednesday as his negotiators prepared for peace talks with rebels to end more than two weeks of violence that has pushed the country towards civil war.
Kiir called the emergency in Unity and Jonglei states, the two regions whose capitals are now controlled by rebel forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, who Kiir has accused of plotting a coup.
Gunshots were heard near the presidential palace on Wednesday evening. A presidential spokesman said security forces most likely fired the shots at residents breaking a curfew.
Both sides are under mounting pressure from regional and Western powers to reach a deal to stop the bloodletting that has killed more than 1,000 people in the world's newest state and displaced nearly 200,000 more.
The White House has said it would deny support - vital in a country the size of France that still has hardly any infrastructure more than two years after secession - to any group that seizes power by force.
The rebel delegation earlier arrived in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa ready for the ceasefire talks. They said government negotiators had not yet arrived.
Both sides have agreed in principle to a ceasefire but neither has indicated when the fighting would stop and mediators are concerned that fighting around the flashpoint town of Bor will scupper the talks even before they begin.
South Sudan's defence minister earlier said government forces were battling rebel fighters 11 miles south of Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, which has untapped oil reserves and was the site of an ethnic massacre in 1991.
"There will have to be a fight because they want to defeat the government forces," Defence Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk told Reuters from the capital Juba, 190 km south of Bor by road.
Rebels loyal to Machar seized control of Bor on Tuesday.
US pressure
The Addis Ababa talks will focus on finding ways to roll out and monitor the ceasefire, the East African IGAD bloc that is mediating the talks said.
The clashes, which have spread to half the country's 10 states have unsettled oil markets and raised fears of the conflict spilling over in an already fragile region.
"We don't want to expose the people of South Sudan to a senseless war," South Sudan's Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said on a government Twitter feed on Wednesday.
Kiir has accused his long-term political rival Machar, who he sacked in July, of starting the fighting in a bid to seize power.
Machar has denied the charge, but he has taken to the bush and has acknowledged leading soldiers battling the government.
Clashes between soldiers erupted on December 15 in Juba. The violence quickly spread, dividing the country along the ethnic lines of Machar's Nuer group and Kiir's Dinkas.
South Sudan's neighbours, Washington and the United Nations played a central role in negotiations that ended decades of war with Sudan to the north and led to the secession of South Sudan in 2011, and have been scrambling to stem the latest violence.
The White House upped the pressure for the talks on Tuesday.
"We will hold leaders responsible for the conduct of their forces and work to ensure accountability for atrocities and war crimes," spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said ethnic-based atrocities, often carried out against civilians by uniformed men, had taken place across the country.
Fighting across the country has displaced at least 180,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The clashes have revived memories of the factionalism in the 1990s within the SPLM, the now ruling group that fought Sudan's army in the civil war. Machar led a splinter faction at the time and Nuer fighters loyal to him massacred Dinkas in Bor.
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, NEOCOLONIALISM, OIL, SALVA KIIR, SOUTH SUDAN
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(NEWZIMBABWE) “Proxy Warfare” in South Sudan
The African Union must Intervene
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Global Research, December 24, 2013
Press TV
To watch Press TV’s The Debate program featuring Abayomi Azikiwe, just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/24/341709/au-must-intervene-in-s-sudan-conflict/
Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of the Pan-African News Wire, about the ongoing unrest in South Sudan.
What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Mr. Azikiwe, let’s have your thoughts. Do you agree with the idea that this is a proxy war and who would you say should be blamed for triggering this crisis and do you agree with our guest that this all stems from the independence of South Sudan?
Azikiwe: Yes. I think that there is a huge question in regard to whether or not South Sudan is a viable nation-state because when it broke away some two and a half years ago from the Republic of Sudan in the north, the country was not capable, had very limited infrastructure. At the same time it was wholly dependent upon the various entities in the north for refining of oil and also for the transport of oil from South Sudan to the Republic of Sudan.
China has a very important role in this whole scenario. It is interesting that the United States was largely blocked out of the intervention in regard to the oil industry for a number of years because they have not had good relations with the Republic of Sudan and Khartoum. Most of the concessions for Sudanese oil even prior to the partition were held by state-owned firms from the People’s Republic of China.
Also since the partition, there have been disagreements between Juba, the capital of the Republic of South Sudan and Khartoum, the capital of the Republic of Sudan, over border demarcations also over the terms under which the oil industry in both countries should operate.
So these issues still remain unresolved. China has established diplomatic relations with South Sudan and President Salva Kiir did visit Beijing earlier this year and they have requested assistance from the People’s Republic of China in terms of building a pipeline to try to circumvent the export of oil through other countries other than the Republic of Sudan in the north. The Chinese refused to be involved in the construction of the pipeline …
Press TV: Mr. Azikiwe, would you agree that the African Union at this stage is very important in terms of the steps that it should be taking, the level of involvement and our guest there was earlier suggesting it should not be following in the footsteps of for instance the United States, etc.?
Azikiwe: Yes I agree that the AU has a very important role to play in this whole process. The former South African President Thabo Mbeki had been appointed as an envoy to negotiate a resolution to the outstanding issues involving the partition of the Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan.
I think he has done an excellent job in that entire process. The two states were on the verge of another large scale military conflict during 2012 that appears to have subsided to a great degree but at the same time these issues still remain unresolved and there are questions in South Sudan as to whether or not the government in Khartoum is supporting the dissidents who are acting on behalf, it appears, of the ousted Vice-President Riek Machar as well as other military commanders in Jonglei state as well as Unity state who were declaring their allegiance not to President Salva Kiir but to the ousted Vice-President and these issues are very, very complicated.
But I wanted to also make a comment about the role of China in Africa. China just did not get involved in Africa over the last decade; they have been involved for decades. The Chinese have supported many of the national liberation movements in Africa, in Zimbabwe, in Mozambique, and in other countries and I do not think it is fair to suggest that China has the same type of approach to these emerging African states as the United States.
They do not have a history of slavery and colonialism in Africa, neither do they have the same type of economic relationships that exists between the United States and Africa as well as some of the Western imperialist countries and Africa.
So I think we need to make that distinction between the role of China in Africa as well as the role of the United States in Africa.
Press TV: Mr. Azikiwe, if you can quickly tell us, do you think that South Sudan can at this point in time overcome the challenge that it is facing or do you think it is just too much to handle?
Azikiwe: I think it can overcome. There needs to be dialogue between the major contending forces that are fighting right now inside the country. I do believe as well that the African Union has to intensify its involvement and try to mediate this crisis right now in South Sudan.
The East African regional organization, IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development did send a delegation there but it is going to take more of the authority of the African Union to intervene in this conflict to bring about a solution.
I do not believe that the US or the UN can bring peace to South Sudan
Labels: SOUTH SUDAN
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(NEWZIMBABWE, SAPA) South Sudan ex-VP confirms rebellion
22/12/2013 00:00:00
by SAPA
SOUTH Sudan's former vice president confirmed that he is leading a rebellion and claimed to have taken control over the key oil-producing region of Unity State, the BBC reported on Sunday.
The British broadcaster quoted Riek Machar as saying he would be ready to negotiate with the government, if detained officials allied with him were released and allowed transit to a neutral nation, such as Ethiopia.
Several former ministers were arrested immediately after the outbreak of violence in the country a week ago. Machar's whereabouts are unknown, but he is presumed to be in South Sudan.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir has also agreed to talks, as leaders from neighbouring African nations scramble to organize negotiations and prevent a further slide towards war.
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon demanded an end to the spreading civil conflict, and called on Kiir and Machar to negotiate a political solution. "I demand that all political, military and militia leaders stop hostilities and end the violence against civilians," he said.
"They are responsible to the people of South Sudan to end the crisis and find a political means of addressing their differences." Ban warned the violence poses "a dangerous threat to the future of your country".
More than 40,000 civilians have taken refuge in various UN shelters amid the deteriorating security situation. "We are now actively trying to transfer our assets from other peacekeeping missions," Ban said.
"We are also seeking the support of other key countries who can provide the necessary asset." Ban said the UN faces "a shortage in capacity" after the UN compound in the area was overrun by 2 000 gunmen who killed two peacekeepers and at least 11 civilians.
More than 500 people have died in the week of violence which started in Juba and has spread to other parts of the country, including Jonglei State, an area prone to ethnic violence, and the oil producing Unity State region near the border with Sudan.
On Saturday, three US aircraft were hit by small-arms fire as they approached Bor, the capital of Jonglei, to evacuate US citizens. Four soldiers were injured. The plane made an emergency landing in Uganda.
US President Barack Obama warned South Sudan leaders they run the risk of losing US support and emphasised their responsibility to support efforts to secure Americans in Juba and Bor.
"Any effort to seize power through the use of military force will result in the end of longstanding support from the United States and the international community," he said.
The African Union has warned that the country, which gained independence in 2011, is slipping into a civil war. The conflict has ethnic overtones, sparking concerns that it could take on tribal dimensions.
Kiir is a Dinka, South Sudan's largest ethnic group, while Machar is Nuer. The two tribes have had violent conflicts, mostly centred in Jonglei and focused on cattle raids, ever since South Sudan's independence.
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, OIL, SOUTH SUDAN
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(LAND DESTROYER REPORT) Old Dog, Old Trick: US, Saudis, Qatar Attempt "Arab Spring" Retread in Sudan
Protests are smokescreen for unfolding US-Saudi-Qatari backed violence seeking regime change in Sudan.
September 28, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - The Associated Press reveals that recent and ongoing "Arab Spring-style" unrest in Sudan's capital of Khartoum is led by Sudan's Western-backed opposition, the National Umma Party, and the various faux-NGO's and "independent media" organizations created by the West to prop it up. This reveals yet another Western-engineered uprising designed for regime change in favor of a new, Western friendly client regime.
The AP article, "Sudanese protesters demand the regime's ouster," first claims:
Activists acknowledge they have no unified leadership or support from political parties but express hope the spontaneous nature of the current round of protests means they're gaining momentum.
However, AP then admits [emphasis added]:
One of Sudan's most prominent opposition leaders, Sadiq al-Mahdi of the National Umma Party, told worshippers at a mosque in the district of Omdurman that al-Bashir has been spending the state's budget on "consolidating power" and failed "to lift the agony off the citizens' shoulders."
After the sermon, protesters marched through the district, a longtime opposition stronghold, chanting "the people want the downfall of the regime," the slogan heard in Arab Spring uprisings that began in late 2010 and have led to the ouster of the leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
Clearly, the "activists" indeed have a leader - Sadiq al-Mahdi of the National Umma Party who was literally leading the protesters out into the streets. And while comparisons to the "Arab Spring" invokes images of peaceful "pro-democracy" protests - AP admits that the protesters are already turning to violence:
Angry protesters torched police and dozens of gas stations and government buildings, and students marched chanting for al-Bashir's ouster.
AP, perhaps hoping readers would not bother researching the matter further, also quotes "local blogger and journalist Reem Shawka" to bolster their narrative. Shawka is a columnist at Sudan's 500 Words Magazine. While 500 Words maintains that it is "a Sudanese independent online magazine," it proudly advertises in the right column of its website an upcoming US Institute of Peace "Sudanese and South Sudanese Youth Leaders Program." Like Thailand's deceitful US-funded propaganda front Prachatai, 500 Words is most likely directly funded by the US government, and is most certainly in tune with the US State Department's agenda and talking points regarding Sudan.
Image: Sudan's "independent online magazine," 500 Words proudly advertises for the US Institute of Peace on its website (right-hand side), exposing the predictable ties between its support for Western-backed opposition inside of Sudan and the US State Department through the National Endowment for Democracy and others, who most likely funds the online propaganda front.
....
Indeed 500 Words' editor-in-chief, Moez Ali, has his own page on "Open Democracy" - funded by convicted criminal George Soros' Open Society Institute, the Oak Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, TIDES, and many others.
It should be mentioned that the US Institute of Peace - advertised for on 500 Words - has played an instrumental role in the Western-engineered "Arab Spring," where it literally crafts the constitutions and structure of proxy regimes the West plans to create once targeted nations have been overthrown.
Who is Opposition Leader Sadiq al-Mahdi?
Sadiq al-Mahdi, leader of Sudan's National Umma Party, is a member of the EU-US-Saudi-Qatari run Arab Democracy Foundation and the Club de Madrid which features former US President Bill Clinton as a "full member" amongst many others, and is backed by Wall Street and London's myriad of "international institutions" and foundations including the World Bank, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Ford Foundation, Walmart, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Microsoft, and many others.
Al-Mahdi himself was Oxford educated, according to his official Club de Madrid biography, which also states [emphasis added]:
Al-Mahdi was elected president of the Umma party in November 1964, and led a campaign to promote political activity, develop political Islam, and reform the party by expanding its base and promoting democracy behavior. Despite his efforts towards a democratic government, there was another coup d´état in 1969 that led to a dictatorship referred to as the May Regime.
He was soon arrested by the military government, exiled to Egypt, and detained in Sudanese prisons repeatedly until 1974. Later that year, he traveled abroad and toured Arab and African Capitals where he delivered a number of lectures. While in exile, he formed the National Democratic Front (NDF), comprised of Umma, the Democratic Unionist Party, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Through his efforts, the NDF was able to make an accord of national reconciliation in 1977 with the May Regime that mandated democratic reform.
His direct association with the Muslim Brotherhood is important, as this is the organization that as far back as 2007, under then US President George Bush, began receiving US-Saudi-Israeli support to prepare the violent overthrow of several nations, including in particular, Syria. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker article, "The Redireciton: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" would reveal US-Saudi-Israeli support behind funding and arming the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria:
"the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory and open to negotiations."
Hersh also reported that a supporter of the Lebanese pro-US-Saudi Hariri faction had met Dick Cheney in Washington and relayed personally the importance of using the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria in any move against the ruling government:
"[Walid] Jumblatt then told me that he had met with Vice-President Cheney in Washington last fall to discuss, among other issues, the possibility of undermining Assad. He and his colleagues advised Cheney that, if the United States does try to move against Syria, members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood would be “the ones to talk to,” Jumblatt said."
The article would continue by explaining how already in 2007 US and Saudi backing had begun benefiting the Brotherhood:
"There is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has already benefitted the Brotherhood. The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, “The Americans have provided both political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is American involvement.” He said that Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met with officials from the National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of the Front with travel documents."
That al-Mahdi, whose coalition included the Muslim Brotherhood that's played an instrumental role executing recent Western designs in Syria and Egypt, and whose uprising and calls for faux-reform is echoed by the likes of Sudanese extremist leader Hassan al-Turabi (who had in fact invited Osama Bin Laden to Sudan), is now leading protesters through the streets of Sudan's capital, torching infrastructure, government buildings, and police stations (just as was done across Egypt and Syria), indicates another attempt by the West to overthrow the Sudanese government via proxy militancy.
That the West has once again "coincidentally" arrayed its vast resources behind al-Mahdi's "revolution," which includes Al Qaeda-linked leaders like al-Turabi, once again illustrates that so-called "Islamic" extremism is a geopolitical tool both created and intentionally perpetuated by the West, both as a pretext for direct military invasion and occupation (Mali, Afghanistan) and as an inexhaustible proxy mercenary force for overthrowing targeted nations (Libya, Egypt, Syria).
What to Watch For
Sudan shares borders with NATO-overthrown Libya, destabilized Egypt, and US military proxy Ethiopia. It is also across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia itself. Both Libya and Egypt have sizable US-Saudi-Israeli-Qatari-backed terrorist organizations and their affiliated political arms - the Muslim Brotherhood being the most prominent. Sudan is a potential tinderbox made more volatile in recent years due to the Muslim Brotherhood's US-Saudi-Qatari-Israeli enabled rise, along with the Western-backed terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, that form it's armed factions.
The West's interest in Sudan is not causal or spontaneous. It was listed as one of several nations the US had intended to violently overthrow and subjugate as a client regime since at least 2001, revealed in a speech given by US Army General Wesley Clark in 2007.
With a recent terrorist attack by US armed and backed Al Qaeda in Nairobi Kenya threatening to justify new joint African Union-US AFRICOM incursions into Somalia, and destabilizations ongoing in both Egypt and to a much greater extent in Syria, the words of General Wesley Clark are both prophetic and indicative of the true nature of both the so-called "Arab Spring" and the attempted violent regime changes being organized behind the smokescreen of "pro-democracy protesters."
While Sudan may not seem to have significance to most across the West, the geopolitical implications of an entire region from Mali to Pakistan under Western destabilization directly impacts oil, logistics, and stability across the globe. Nations like China which relies on African and Middle Eastern trade, are directly impacted by US attempts to destabilize and overthrow Sudan - and is in fact one of the driving motivations of the West's so-called "Arab Spring."
Following the "Arab Spring" playbook, we should expect attempts to justify the increased militarization of the so-called "opposition," who will at first be portrayed as "pro-democracy" moderates forced to "defend themselves," but will be fully revealed as Al Qaeda as full-scale proxy military operations get underway. The only way to avert a destructive military conflict is for the Sudanese government to swiftly and severely crush the opposition and secure the borders where NATO-backed militants and their equipment are most likely to flow.
Sudan's government must also make real attempts at reform, while exposing the foreign-backed nature of opposition leaders trying to divide and destroy the nation. By breaking the predictable "evil dictator" mold Sudan's leadership has been cast in by the Western media, it, and other nations targeted by Western regime change can even the odds leveled against them by the still formidable Western press and their partners in propaganda across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel.
Unprecedented amounts of resources have been committed to the geopolitical reordering of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. It would be a considerable mistake for any nation overtly listed by the US as "pending regime change" to underestimate any beginnings of unrest clearly backed by foreign interests. While some operations may be "testing the waters," the final push can come at any time with fully militarized proxies pre-positioned and prepared to sow the same genocidal destruction US-backed terrorists in Syria are carrying out.
Labels: ARAB SPRING, COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, SOUTH SUDAN, SUDAN
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South Sudan attack leaves more than 100 dead
By Reuters
Mon 11 Feb. 2013, 12:20 CAT
More than 100 people have been killed in South Sudan in an attack by rebels and ethnic allies on a convoy of families from a rival tribe and their cattle, an official said on Sunday.
Since breaking from Sudan in 2011, oil-producing South Sudan has struggled to assert control over remote territories awash with weapons after a 1983-2005 war with the north and torn by ethnic rivalries.
The attack on Friday was the worst violence in Jonglei State since 900 people were killed there in tribal attacks linked to cattle rustling in 2011, the United Nations said.
Rebels loyal to former theology student David Yau Yau and members of the Murle community had killed 103 people, most of them women and children, in the ambush on ethnic Lou Nuer families, state governor Kuol Manyang said.
"They came under attack from people in a huge force," he told Reuters. "There are many children and women missing. Their fate is not yet known."
Fourteen soldiers escorting the convoy were also killed, he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had sent a medical team to treat the wounded.
Yau Yau rebelled in July last year. He recruited armed youths antagonized by a government campaign to end tribal violence in Jonglei, which human rights groups say was marked by abuses by soldiers.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in Jonglei since independence, according to the United Nations.
South Sudan accuses Sudan of dropping weapons and ammunition to Yau Yau's rebels, an allegation denied by Khartoum.
The violence in Jonglei is hindering government plans to explore a major oil concession with the help of France's Total.
Labels: SOUTH SUDAN, WAR CRIMES
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Feeding frenzy in South Sudan
21 Dec 2012 13:44 - Richard Poplak, Kevin Bloom
As South Sudan begins its journey towards development, the rest of the world is descending in droves. Kevin Bloom and Richard Poplak report.
We wake early, for a televised election. The Afex River Camp, situated on the banks of the White Nile, passes for luxury in the world's newest capital. Fist-sized insects thwack against our $125-per-night containers, where we lay like refrigerated produce. We disengage our phone alarms and stumble into the bilious light of a parking lot. In the shadows on the far side, CNN blares.
It is a Wednesday in November, the halfway mark of one of those weeks that creak beneath the weight of historical significance. As we enter the kitchenette belonging to the International Republican Institute, the Grand Old Party's pet non-governmental organisation, vote counting is already underway for the contest between President Barack Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney. A day later, China's 18th Party Congress will begin the process of installing Xi Jinping as its new leader, determining the course of the world's second largest economy for the coming decade. In Juba, principal city of a recently independent South Sudan, these events seem both portentous and menacing. In Juba, geopolitical alliances shift with the inclement weather.
"South Africans!" says Billy, brightly, when we enter the boardroom. "My drinking buddies from Iraq were South Africans!" Billy is one of the Republican faithful, an army reservist and psychological operations specialist whose halcyon days were spent in Mosul. "A free-fire zone, man!" he says of the place. "No cameras, no media. Just us and the bad guys."
Here, Billy is a babysitter for the young Americans who preach freedom and democracy to President Salva Kiir's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). As we eat our way through egg sandwiches and hash browns, the Electoral College numbers pile up for the Democrat incumbent, and the mood in the room sours.
"Our job is to help build capacity for legislators, and to try encourage working, functional opposition parties," says James Turitto, Resident Programme Officer, and the morning's chief egg fryer. "We're very close to the SPLM. So when senior members tell us they're going to Beijing for ten days, it's a little tough for us to swallow. Truthfully, USAID and State are worried about the path the SPLM are taking. You could see how China would appeal to them."
(Photo: Africa 3.0)
Conversely, we can see how South Sudan would appeal to the Chinese, the Americans, and the dozens of others circling the region with vulpine intent. "Everyone wants a piece of the pie that is Juba, South Sudan," wrote Kenyan investigative journalist Wanjohi Kabukuru, in a paper published by Norwegian People's Aid.
Since independence was celebrated on July 9, 2011, Kiir's government has been locked in a dispute over oil revenues with Khartoum, a stalemate that's led to the cessation of oil exports and the implosion of the economy. Oil, when it is pumping, traditionally accounts for 98% of the South Sudanese budget. But oil is only one element in the dizzying compound of economic possibilities that South Sudan represents. There is almost no infrastructural development here: few paved roads; no electricity grid; a non-existent sanitation system.
Independence referendum
The vacuum promises untold riches. According to a 48-page dossier titled "The New Frontier," commissioned by Norwegian People's Aid and written by David Kuol Mading, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between north and south in 2005 kicked off a land grab. Foreign interests now control 5.74 million hectares of land in the South Sudanese agribusiness sector alone-almost 9% of the country's landmass. South African companies have had a field day: SAB Miller pumped R354 million into South Sudan Beverages Limited (tagline-"The taste of progress"), while PetroSA purchased oil concessions, and Global Engineering Consortium SA signed a R180 million contract with the Sudan Railway Corporation.
Politically, the players with the largest stake, when the two Sudans are taken as a piece, are the Chinese and the Americans. While the CPA was largely a result of consistent American pressure, the independence referendum in January 2011 could never have happened without the Chinese conceding to its inevitability. China has for years owned controlling stakes in Sudan's big energy consortiums, and thus could expect roughly 60% of the 490,000 barrels of oil that flowed to Port Sudan, through pipelines they'd built and maintained.
The questions become more urgent by the day: how will South Sudan's fledgling government manage the feeding frenzy? Whose sphere of influence will they enter? When will the oil start flowing? And will the people of this battered nation get a chance to reap the rewards of an independence that cost millions of lives and decades of darkness?
Meanwhile, on the flat screen at the head of the boardroom, Wolf Blitzer makes it clear that the numbers have all but sunk Romney's campaign.
"Fuck it," says Billy, standing. "I'm going to put in an order for a thousand rounds of ammo."
The architecture, if you can call it that, is minutely descriptive. The Ministry of Petroleum is a mirrored gangster palace-cum-70s Baghdad nightclub, with tight security and a consigliore in a fine suit who barks, when we enter, "What is your agenda?" At the Ministry of Industry and Commerce we find no security and compact, welcoming buildings. The Ministry of Wildlife resembles a bombed-out park.
In office after office, while we wait for interviews that will never happen, we get reminders of the morning's election. Obama's victory speech-"you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over War and Depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope"-has already been downloaded as a ringtone. In Juba, democracy is a powerful brand, but a bitch to implement.
If there is anyone here who properly understands this, who can pick at the myriad threads that bind and knot his country into an impenetrable tangle, it must be Lumumba Stanislaus-Kaw Di-Aping. Known to South African journalists as the man who once unofficially represented the SPLM in Pretoria, and to the world's press as the diplomat who engineered a breakaway of African states at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference (when he was chief negotiator for the so-called G77 bloc and China), Di-Aping is currently in charge of his country's development vision.
His liberal-humanist bona fides are impressive-stints at Yale, at Oxford, at the United Nations and McKinsey & Co. Although he was the architect, with the assistance of George Soros, of the hundred million dollar Climate Green Fund, he drew the ire of the West for comparing its climate policy to the Holocaust, and for "ask[ing] Africa to sign a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries." He faced down President Obama over the negotiating table, and did not blink.
(Photo: Africa 3.0)
As for his own homeland, Di-Aping is no less resolute. "There is no such thing as reconstruction in South Sudan," he says, "we have only construction. We have no powerful vested interests that can impede a developmental state the way South Africa's transformation plan was scattered. Ideologically, we have no power struggles within the movement, such as there are in the ANC."
Performance-oriented leadership
We have met him at an outdoor café in downtown Juba, where it appears to us that the broader vested interests are on full display-NGO-types vying for tables with Chinese businessmen, local politicians whispering lest they be heard by American ears-but we take his point: compared to South Africa's ruling party, the SPLM is a paragon of virtuous unity. Di-Aping's contention is that neither the market fundamentalists nor the socialists within his party are strong enough to dictate policy, and that given the tabula rasa before him, what needs to be emulated are the blueprints of countries like Botswana and Mauritius.
He speaks of ordinary citizens taking precedence over the demands of big capital, of performance-oriented leadership, of an autonomous bureaucracy manipulated neither by the market nor by politics. For Di-Aping, the per capita prosperity of Botswana and Mauritius is important mainly in hindsight-what was critical when those African exemplars were coming up was how they managed to spread the wealth. "Luckily enough," he says, "in South Sudan we own the oil resources. Now we need to orient that towards the vision."
Hesitating for a moment, Di-Aping then opens his laptop, and invites us to have a look at a document. This, he explains, is the manifesto for South Sudanese development; we are among the first outsiders to see it. Due to be endorsed in December 2012, he says, it will inform three things: all of South Sudan's development processes, its entire project of state formation, and its constitutional framework going forward.
The writing in the 33-page document, which was overseen by a committee of seven, was done mostly by the man before us-in the context of the greed and misery we've already witnessed on Juba's streets, it soon becomes apparent that we've been given access to a profoundly beautiful (if profoundly ambitious) growth plan.
Di-Aping scrolls through the pages until he arrives at a certain paragraph, which he asks us to read aloud: "The mission of the SPLM is to construct a knowledge economy in South Sudan and to build a nation and society that is inspired by peace, freedom, justice, unity, prosperity and progress. The SPLM will ensure democracy under the rule of law and good governance, to safeguard fundamental human, economic, social, cultural and religious rights and freedoms. Through the people, SPLM shall govern."
The question is obvious: a knowledge economy in a country with one of the lowest literacy rates on Earth, where barely a quarter of the populace is able to read and write?
"The only way ahead for South Sudan is through a massive educational programme," says Di-Aping. "This is the difference between where Africa went wrong and where the Asian tiger economies went right. You cannot think of creating opportunities when the majority of your people are illiterate, I don't care whose theories you've read. Okay?"
According to Di-Aping, its late admittance as an independent state has given South Sudan the opportunity to learn from the developing world's mistakes-and what it's learned is that where education hasn't been a priority, only suffering has been harvested. He rejects the assertion that his country lacks "capacity," countering that whatever the term means, no nation in history ever started off with it. "What we need," he says, "is the will and the wit."
The developing world's mistakes
It's the country's vast pool of youth, Di-Aping continues, that's at the core of the manifesto. South Sudan's thousands of young, returning exiles-the so-called "Lost Boys," who in the '80s and '90s trekked on foot across the border, receiving their secondary education in refugee camps, gaining admittance to universities in the United States-have been earmarked to haul the rest of the nation up. It will be up to them to erect what the SPLM recognises as the Five Pillars: mass education; effective petroleum and mining management; sustainable agriculture and climate change policies; infrastructural development; financial and industrial growth.
Later, while we're taking cover from a torrential downpour, Di-Aping stresses the urgency of getting this vision squared away. "We understand how the West plays the game-that's old hat. As for the Chinese, the only way you manage them is after you have everything spelt out. Otherwise? Otherwise they'll finish you."
(Photo: Africa 3.0)
It's a Saturday afternoon in Unity State, the oil-rich province on the border with Sudan, and James Adiok Mayik is once again quoting John Garang. Killed in a helicopter crash in 2005, South Sudan's liberation icon is never far from the thoughts of the country's intelligentsia. Adiok, recently returned from Portland, Oregon, more than fits the bill-armed with a Masters of Education, he is exactly the caste of young leader of whom Di-Aping spoke.
"'Bring the town to the people,'" he intones, as we lounge on the concrete roof of our bare-bones hotel, "'not the people to the town.'"
Like most of his ilk, Adiok's Lost Boy history began when he was in his early teens, and his life is marked with violence and hardship. A firstborn Nuer herder who was never meant to enter a schoolhouse, he was forced to walk barefoot across the country, finding refuge in Kenya. Ironically, without the war, Adiok would not have learned to read and write. Now, he teaches teachers how to teach.
Garang's quote, which Adiok repeats twice for effect, pumps through the veins of local thought-leaders-it implies a decentralised system of governance, where service delivery to the rural areas slows the pace of urbanisation that has all but destroyed many African states. Still, the pull of petroleum is irresistible, and Unity State illuminates the oppositional forces at work in South Sudan.
Bentiu, for instance. A town that swells by the day, thumping with the noise of generators for a few raucous hours after dusk. Standing at midnight in its starlit, sewage-lined streets, in a preternatural quiet that speaks to the lack of basic 20th century amenities, we come to understand the scale of the country's challenges.
Fully demarcated
The governor of Unity State is an ex-warlord named Taban Deng Gai- according to a local civil rights activist, who speaks to us on condition of anonymity, he's "not only the most corrupt man in South Sudan, but in all of Africa." Deng, who has been absent from his state for almost three months, is currently paying a visit to his heavily fortified bush camp. With him, we have it on good authority, are his deputies, come to provide reports on the latest events.
He is unlikely to receive much good news. After Chevron found oil near Bentiu in 1981, Sudan's then president, Jafaar Nimieri-who in 1983 rekindled hostilities between the Muslim north and Christian/animist south by introducing sharia law-tried to push the nominal border as far back as possible. Unity was thus rendered a permanent frontline, and in arming proxies and stoking inter- and intra-ethnic grievances, Khartoum froze the area in the Stone Age.
At its quietest, the state writhes with political and ethnic tension. In many regions, particularly in the restive north, where the border has yet to be fully demarcated, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has scant authority, and roving rebel commanders have enormous sway. Characterising the war as a conflict between north and south becomes almost laughably reductive-Deng himself was variously aligned with Khartoum, the SPLA, and a range of splinter groups. The alliances, broken, renewed, or otherwise, resemble the plot of a particularly convoluted soap opera.
Partly in preparation for our trip to South Sudan, we met in October with China's Special Envoy to Africa, Ambassador Zhong Jianhua, at the Foreign Ministry in Beijing. The ambassador's brief has always focused (some might say to a disproportionate degree) on the Sudan issue; his predecessor, Liu Guijin, was instrumental in brokering talks with then Chinese premier Hu Jintao and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, a dialogue that led directly to the independence referendum.
"Africa used to buy expensive and sell cheap," Ambassador Zhong told us. "Now, they sell expensive and buy cheap."
He was referring to the unprecedented opportunities that an oil price of $100 a barrel presents to South Sudan, and his outlook reflects a key difference in how China and the West view the region. Seen through Beijing's lens, the country is in a far better position than China was after the Cultural Revolution, when commodity prices were at an historic low. Ambassador Zhong made it clear that, for him, South Sudan is a universe of potential. Whereas from Washington's perspective, the country is not much more than a basket case, a backwater in need of nursing and aid.
Ambassador Zhong assured us that negotiations were underway to turn the oil taps back on. By the time we arrive in Bentiu, his words have proved prescient: the pipelines are being flushed, and the lifeblood might flow as soon as December, or January, or some other point in the not-too-distant future.
Sell expensive and buy cheap
On the Sunday following our arrival, in order to allow us to see for ourselves, Adiok arranges a four-by-four, an armed guard, and an audience with the local security chief. We are allowed to proceed along the path of the buried pipeline, through swampy wastelands, to the refinery of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, 40% owned by the China National Petroleum Corporation.
A few kilometres beyond a bridge that al-Bashir's warplanes failed to bomb in April, the craters lying muddy and deep by the side of the road, we stop for lunch. "This place used to be beautiful when the oil was flowing," Adiok informs us-although amid the stench and the torpor, it's hard to imagine how.
Forty minutes later, we're inside an aluminium compound, in conversation with a local superintendent. We are led to a second compound, where the refinery's Chinese production manager appears less than thrilled to see us. "But they are looking for Chinese investment in Africa," says the superintendent. "That is you!"
Laughs all 'round. And then there are six men at the production manager's door, two large members of the project's security detail having just joined the fray. The production manager is thus rescued, allowed to return to his Sunday rest. We are led away and mildly interrogated. Who are we? What do we want? The large men, almost sympathetic to our story, in the end play it safe. Like everyone else in Unity State, they are pawns in a geopolitical game. The rules at this refinery are determined by Beijing, by Khartoum, and-still only last-by Juba.
That night, on a TV hanging in a boma in a Bentiu hotel, we watch news of the highway being built between South Sudan and Kenya, with help from China Exim Bank. A contingent arrives on November 15, to hasten negotiations. Adiok sighs.
"There you go," he says.
Security detail
The feeding frenzy will continue, as will the struggle for South Sudan's soul. Shortly before our arrival, the creation of the country's new capital is announced: according to the Sudan Tribune, the Pan-China Construction Group will fund and build a glittering modern metropolis from the nothingness of Ramciel, which lies in the dead centre of the country.
There is an all too apt parable lurking in the news of Ramciel. As the nascent United States of America did with Washington, D.C., South Sudan will fashion a fresh government seat to echo its fresh democracy. Except that here, construction comes at the behest of the Chinese. Ideals versus pragmatics: the curse of the postmodern liberation movement.
What would John Garang, who wanted to bring the town to the people, say about Ramciel, about Bentiu, about Juba, about the 18 months following independence?
For his part, Adiok doesn't equivocate. "The war smashed our way of life," he says. "We need to heal. What good will come of people going to the city? What will they do there?"
This article was made possible by a grant from the China-Africa Reporting Project, managed by the Journalism Department of the University of Witwatersrand. For more on the China-Africa story from Bloom and Poplak, visit africa3point0or follow them at Twitter
An earlier version of this story online contained several inaccuracies due to subbing errors. The Mail & Guardian Online apologises for these errors.
Labels: SOUTH SUDAN
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S/Sudan expels UN human rights officer
By Reuters
Tue 06 Nov. 2012, 14:20 CAT
South Sudan on Sunday said it had expelled a UN human rights investigator, accusing her of writing false reports, a move the UN mission said broke the country's legal obligations to the United Nations.
UN sources, who named the officer as Sandra Beidas, said the expulsion may have been related to an August report accusing the army of torturing, raping, killing and abducting civilians.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended a decades-long civil war in which some 2 million people died. Sporadic conflict has continued in disputed border areas.
Human rights groups accuse the new nation, which depends heavily on Western donors, of allowing abuses by its security forces, mostly composed of poorly-trained former guerrilla and militia fighters.
Government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said the officer had been "writing reports which have no truth in them". He did not elaborate.
Hilde Johnson, head of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), called the expulsion a "breach of the legal obligations of the government of the Republic of South Sudan under the charter of the United Nations."
Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused South Sudan's army of gross human rights violations during a disarmament campaign aimed at stopping inter-tribal warfare in Jonglei. - Reuters
Labels: HUMAN RIGHTS, SOUTH SUDAN, SUDAN
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