Machar ‘not under house arrest’ in South Africa – associates

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar

Close associates of South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar have denied reports that he is under house arrest in South Africa.
Instead, they are accusing President Salva Kiir’s administration of trying to persuade Pretoria to expel him from the country.
Lam Jok, the SPLM-IO representative in Kenya said that Dr Machar is free to carry out any of his activities in South Africa.
“He goes out, attends meeting just like any other diplomat in South Africa.
“His major focus now is to return to South Sudan after the region and the international community intervene to help the people of South Sudan co-exist,” Mr Jok said.
SPLM-IO is Dr Machar’s party that has been in a three-year conflict with President Kiir’s SPLM.
Since last week, talk has been rife that Dr Machar has been placed under house arrest in Pretoria. This comes after Ethiopia suspended his return to Addis Ababa where he had been operating since the war begun in December 2013.
Dr Machar returned to Juba in April but fled in July after the outbreak of fresh fighting, first to DR Congo then to Sudan. However, his brief stay in Sudan was also marked by restrictions when the Khartoum government banned him from issuing any political statement.
In the meantime, the outgoing United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has condemned what he called as President Kiir’s pursuit of an ethnically-based strategy to suppress dissent, muzzle the media, and exclude significant South Sudan people.
He condemned the restrictions imposed by the government on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and humanitarian organisations, which he says is increasing by the day.
The UN had earlier warned that Rwanda-like genocide could be in the making in South Sudan.
Expressing similar sentiments, outgoing United States president, Barack Obama, said: “I feel responsible for the murder and slaughter that’s taken place in South Sudan that’s not being reported on partly because there’s not as much social media being generated from there.”
The Obama administration play a key role during the birth of the world’s newest nation in 2011, when it seceded from Sudan.