As Peace Talks Fail, AU Blames US, UK for South Sudan Crisis

© AP Photo/ Ben Curtis, File

By supporting South Sudan’s independence from Sudan, the US, UK and Norway created conditions for the ongoing civil war in the world’s youngest country, allege leaked documents from an inquiry by the African Union.

In 2005, the US, UK and Norway pushed through a peace deal, which legitimized the South Sudanese rebels, and paved the way in which for the country’s independence in 2011.

According to a draft of the African Union inquiry obtained by Reuters, what of the Western powers helped establish “a politically unchallenged armed power in South Sudan” that acted with impunity and legitimized “rule of the gun.”

At the very least 10,000 people have now been killed and another 1.5 million displaced since July 2013 when fighting began between the forces loyal to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, and the militants led by his sacked deputy Riek Machar.

The findings of the inquiry were to be presented to the African Union’s Peace and Security Council in late January, but it absolutely was decided the document could be shelved.

According to a Reuters source, it absolutely was done due to concerns the publication may disrupt talks aimed at forming a transitional government in South Sudan, which are underway between Kiir and Machar.

After negotiations broke down just as before Friday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who’s serving as mediator, said both parties were failing in their duty to find peace.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, left, and rebel leader Riek Machar, right, shake hands and pray in May 2014. © AP VIDEO

The inquiry suggested that South Sudan’s president and his rival must certanly be barred from the transitional government, and the nation should effectively be placed under African Union control for a period of time of five years.

The investigation, led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, stated that Kiir and Machar are responsible for the political crisis in December 2013 and “the organized massacres and the large-scale violence that followed.”

Officials from the US, UK and Norway said which they won’t comment on the document, that they haven’t seen.

“I believe the investigation that the African Union has begun and the commission’s position, it takes to be manufactured public,” Borge Brende, Norway’s Foreign Minister, told NRK broadcaster.

Washington, London and the UN Security Council all support the decision to make the inquiry public, as well.

Until losing confidence in him in late 2013, Washington supported Kiir, hoping he could oversee a well balanced, oil-producing, majority Christian state allied to the West, as opposed to the neighboring Muslim-led Sudan, that will be hostile to Washington.