A lawmaker and senior official with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-Juba) under President Salva Kiir has claimed the United States of America is leading a global campaign to change the government in South Sudan.
“Everybody is surprised by the way the United States had changed and quickly turned their backs against the very people they have supported to realise their dream. Instead of helping us to address our issues as friends, they have instead decided to lead a huge global campaign to remove this government,” said MP Philip Thon Leek in an interview on Tuesday.
“Okay, there is no problem with changing the government but that should be done in the way it is done in the [United] States. They go for elections which is the democracy they are talking about. If you win, you come to power, if you fail; you accept the defeat and wait for the next round,” said Leek, who is chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the national legislature.
Leek, in a written press statement, also expressed disappointment with the failure by the principal leaders at South Sudan’s peace talks to reach a compromise peace accord but cautioned that as “a representative of the people of South Sudan, they are of the view that a peace agreement that will reward the rebels is unacceptable”.
The MP and former Jonglei state governor repeatedly pointed accusing fingers at the United States which he claimed to have “taken aggressive, unjust and poisonous step mistakenly thought as a way to bring peace.”
“I would like to stress here that punitive measures undermines peaceful approach to settling a conflict,” he said, referring to the threats of sanctions made by the US.