US May Supply South Sudan With Anti-Aircraft Missiles

South Sudan President Salva Kiir with Susan Rice, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. The state of Sudan was partitioned after the South held a referendum on its future in January 2011., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

S. Sudan seeks anti-aircraft missiles

2012-05-17 08:13
By Hereward Hollandin Juba, South Sudan (China Daily)

South Sudan will soon acquire anti-aircraft missiles to defend its territory against air attacks it says are frequently carried out by warplanes from neighboring Sudan, the South Sudanese military said on Wednesday.

Since South Sudan became the world's newest independent nation in July, 2011, its government has accused northern neighbor Sudan of continuing aerial bombing raids on South Sudanese territory, a charge routinely denied by Khartoum.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also called on Sudan to halt what she called "provocative" air bombardments.

Last week, a former US special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, urged his country to send weapons to Juba.

"The only way to end the North's bullying and foster peace talks is to give the South the right tools: American anti-aircraft weapons," Natsios wrote in an article published in the Washington Post.

Experts said acquiring anti-aircraft weapons would certainly strengthen the South Sudanese army's arsenal against the generally better-armed northern forces, but would not necessarily end the bombings or the conflict.

Foreign reporters in South Sudan have witnessed bombings by Sudanese warplanes of targets including a market, a refugee camp and oil infrastructure, and border skirmishes between the two countries' armies last month included a series of air raids by the northern nation.

The United Nations' top human rights official said on Friday she was outraged by Sudan's "indiscriminate" bombings of South Sudan that killed and injured civilians, after UN officials verified damage and casualties caused by recent raids.

South Sudanese army spokesman Philip Aguer said on Wednesday Juba's military intended to acquire anti-aircraft missiles as part of the new African nation's plans to modernize and re-equip its armed forces, which had previously fought for years as a rebel guerrilla army against Khartoum. "It will enhance our defenses. All strategic points need to be protected, including oil-producing areas and airports," Aguer said. He did not say where South Sudan would seek to purchase the anti-aircraft weapons, nor exactly what kind they would be.

He did not specify a time-frame for the South Sudanese army to acquire the anti-aircraft capability, but The Sudan Tribune newspaper quoted the head of South Sudan's army James Hoth Mai as saying his troops would be equipped with anti-aircraft missiles within a "few months".

Last month's fighting broke out amid disputes between the two former civil war foes over oil exports, border demarcation, citizenship rights and financial arrangements.

On May 2, the UN Security Council, endorsing an African Union peace plan, gave the two sides two weeks to resume talks on the outstanding disputes, but there was no indication that a firm date has been set for negotiations to restart. The Security Council gave them three months to solve the issues or face sanctions.

Consolidation

Aguer said acquiring air-defense capability would help South Sudan to consolidate its newly-won independence, unanimously endorsed by its population in a referendum following an initial 2005 peace agreement that ended more than two decades of civil war between the North and the South.

"Prior to independence, it was not easy to acquire these weapons but now I believe we will," Aguer said.

"This will promote the confidence of South Sudanese citizens that their airspace will not be violated again. That will have a psychological and physical impact," he added.

Jonah Leff, project coordinator for the Small Arms Survey Sudan Project, said that the South Sudan's army would have to be trained to use the surface-to-air missiles effectively.

"I wouldn't expect for Khartoum to back down, but anti-aircraft missiles would give the SPLA an advantage that they didn't previously have," he told Reuters by email.

"Even if Khartoum decides to cease its aerial operations, which I find doubtful, the two sides still seem to have an appetite for war, which could be fought on the battefield," Leff added.

Reuters