Academic accuses Salva Kiir of 'hating' UN, USA
New York-based academic Richard Gowan has accused the South Sudanese president of 'hating' the UN and the United States amid a growing backlash in the USA at reports that Salva Kiir's troops beat and raped American and Western aid workers in Juba last month.
His remarks were published yesterday by Foreign Policy, a website and magazine with a prominent following in the US. Citing a report by the Associated Press, the magazine stated in a headline that “Americans are being beaten and targeted by [South Sudanese] troops.”
Gowan, who is research director at the New York University's Center on International Cooperation, is quoted in the magazine article as “an expert on U.N. peacekeeping operations.”
“The U.S. and the U.N. gambled on close relations with Salva Kiir, and it turns out that Salva Kiir in an untrustworthy partner who hates the U.N. and increasingly hates the U.S,” Gowan said.
In a separate article published the same day by Global Peace Operates Review, Gowan called Salva Kiir “insecure and often aggressive,” saying the United Nations peacekeepers in the country are weak because they have “little choice but to work with him and his allies.”
He suggested that the United Nations should be ready to withdraw its peacekeepers from South Sudan in view of the increasing difficulty of working with the government there.
Gowan's statements come after President Kiir lashed out at the international community in a speech in parliament on Monday, warning that the peacekeeping mission could become an “intervention”. As the room stood and applauded, British and American diplomats in the hall remained seated, in a display of silent protest.
Recent press reports in the US cite accusations that Kiir's troops singled out Americans for abuse and beatings, carried out mock executions and gang-raped several foreign women during a rampage at the Terrain hotel in Juba last month.
Foreign Policy magazine has questioned “why the nearby U.S. Embassy didn’t send American troops to rescue those trapped at the hotel — and why Washington kept silent about the incident for more than a month until it was revealed by the AP’s report.”
US officials have said they could not have sent troops to Terrain where the abuses occurred but questioned why nearby UN peacekeepers did not respond. They also claim to have contacted South Sudanese officials to appeal to them to send an intervention force.
The US-based academic Gowan, in his article yesterday, writes that diplomats at the UN Security Council and UN are “losing patience,” suggesting that the sanctions regime established last year “could be used to freeze Kiir’s assets.”
Photos: Salva Kiir (above); Richard Gowan (below)
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