South Sudan peace talks set to start amid renewed fighting

ADDIS ABABAJUBA - South Sudan's government and rebels were set to begin formal peace talks on Sunday amid outbreaks of fresh fighting across the country including in the capital Juba.

The talks in the Ethiopian capital are aimed at ending three weeks of fighting that have already left thousands dead in the world's newest nation, and US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the two sides not to use the talks as a "gimmick" for buying time.

"Negotiations have to be serious, they cannot be a delay, (a) gimmick in order to continue the fighting and try to find advantage on the ground at the expense of the people of South Sudan," Kerry told reporters while on a visit to Jerusalem.

After a preliminary meeting late Saturday, negotiations were expected to begin on Sunday afternoon -- although diplomats said "protocol issues" had delayed the start to later Sunday, without ruling out a start early Monday.

Regional peace brokers appeared to be struggling to prevent a breakdown, amid heavy fighting overnight inside Juba and more clashes elsewhere in the country, plus key differences over the fate of rebel officials detained by the government of President Salva Kiir.

The spokesman for South Sudan's government delegation, Information Minister Michael Makuei, struck a confrontational tone by again accusing rebel leader Riek Machar of having started the fighting by attempting a coup.

"His attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government is an established fact... but the way the international community is handling it is rather strange," he told reporters, rejecting calls for Juba to release suspected rebels in government custody.

"We are being told to negotiate with the rebels. But any rebels who have fallen in our hands will have to answer why he or she decided to take up arms against a democratically-elected government," he said, asserting that "nobody is above the law."

Ethiopian government spokesman Getachew Reda said IGAD -- the East African regional bloc brokering the talks -- was trying to convince South Sudan's government to release 11 detainees, many of them former senior government officials, as a "goodwill gesture."

He said a possible compromise could be for the detainees to be transferred to IGAD custody.

The United States, which was instrumental in helping South Sudan win independence, has also urged South Sudan's government to "release political detainees immediately" so that they can take part in the negotiations.

More fighting across the country

The conflict erupted on December 15, pitting army units loyal to Kiir against a loose alliance of ethnic militia forces and mutinous army commanders nominally headed by Machar, a former vice president who was sacked last July.

Machar denies having attempted a coup, and in turn accuses the president of orchestrating a violent purge.

Fighting now grips much of South Sudan -- which won independence from Khartoum only in 2011 -- with the rebels seizing several areas in the oil-rich north. The conflict has already left thousands dead, according to UN officials, with both sides alleged to have committed atrocities.

Juba was also rocked by heavy gunfire late on Saturday, with exchanges of automatic and heavy weapons fire heard coming from a district in the south of the city before calm returned in the early hours of the morning.

After a terrifying night sheltering in their homes, more Juba residents could be seen trying to get transport south to Uganda, adding to the nearly 200,000 people who have already been displaced by the conflict.

UN peacekeeping bases have also been overwhelmed with civilians seeking shelter, many of them fleeing ethnic violence pitting Kiir's Dinka community against Machar's Nuer tribe.

There was speculation that another army unit in Juba had defected to the rebels, although army spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP that the government was "investigating exactly what happened".

The army spokesman also reported ongoing clashes in the oil-producing Unity and Upper Nile states in the north, saying that government forces were advancing on the two state capitals of Bentiu and Malakal, currently in rebel hands.

Government troops were also preparing to retake Bor, capital of Jonglei State, he added.

"The SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) forces are advancing from the northern part of Bentiu. We will try to do our constitutional duty... sooner or later our target is Bentiu," Aguer told reporters.

"It's matter of time, our forces are advancing towards Bor," he said, claiming that the rebels "realize they are fighting a useless war" and saying government forces were a mere 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the town.

The spokesman admitted that an army unit in the town of Yei, situated south of Juba and near the border with Uganda, had defected to the rebels on Saturday and left the area in a number of vehicles. He also reported another defection in Western Equatoria State, an area which had so far largely escaped the fighting. — Agence France-Presse