INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2013 JUBA: South Sudan’s fugitive for- mer vice president denied yester- day accusations he led a coup bid against his archrival President Salva Kiir after days of fierce fighting that has killed hundreds of people and sent thousands fleeing to UN bases. The deadly unrest in the capital Juba has alarmed the international community and sparked fears of a return to civil war in the world’s youngest nation. Kiir on Monday accused soldiers loyal to his arch- rival, former vice president Riek Machar, of staging a coup attempt in the oil-rich but deeply impover- ished nation, which has struggled with instability since becoming independent in 2011. But in comments published Wednesday, Machar denied any attempt to topple the president, and instead accused Kiir of using the violence as a pretext to purge any challengers. “What took place in Juba was a misunderstanding between presidential guards within their division, it was not a coup attempt,” he told the Paris-based Sudan Tribune website in his first public remarks since the fighting erupted. “Kiir wanted to use the alleged coup attempt in order to get rid of us,” said Machar, who was sacked by the president in July. The govern- ment said 10 key figures, many of them former ministers, have been arrested in the crackdown, and that others, including Machar, were on the run. Amid fears that South Sudan could descend into wider ethnic violence, the United States ordered non-essential embassy staff out of the country. The fighting has high- lighted the bitter fault lines in the country, which is awash with guns after decades of war.In Juba, gun- fire rang out into the early hours of yesterday, an AFP reporter said, but without the same intensity as the two previous nights. “It was the qui- etest night we’ve had in Juba since the crisis began on Sunday evening,” Joe Contreras, a spokesman for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)told AFP. By midday life on the streets of Juba showed signs of returning to normal. Juba airport reopened and several regional airlines resumed flights, although others said they were waiting for additional security guarantees. Dozens of foreign aid workers and expatriates said on Twitter they were waiting at the air- port to board the first flight they could out of the country. Many of Juba’s residents have spent the past two days barricaded in their homes, too afraid to move. Others used lulls in the sporadic and often intense battles to grab what belongings they could and flee to safer areas, including UN bases. Situation ‘extremely tense’ UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the Security Council that between 400-500 bodies had been taken to hospitals in Juba, while another 800 people had been wounded. Ladsous told the council it appeared the clashes that erupt- ed in the “extremely tense” capital late Sunday were on ethnic lines. Kiir and his rival Machar hail from different ethnic groups and fought on different sides during Sudan’s civil war. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said medical teams in Juba’s two main hospitals were having trouble coping. “Staff in both hospitals have been working around the clock, but they are struggling because of the sheer volume of patients and the severity of the injuries,” said Felicity Gapes, an ICRC delegate leading the medical response on the ground. “There is a heavy toll, it is obvious,” Security Council president Gerard Araud told reporters at the UN, adding that precise figures were not yet available. “There are dozens and scores of casualties,” France’s UN ambassador said. Araud added that fighting had also been reported in Jonglei, one of the most troubled states in the country and with a bitter history of clashes between rival ethnic groups. UN peacekeepers said hun- dreds of civilians had sought refuge at two of their bases in Jonglei, in the state capital Bor and the east- ern town of Pibor. Fighting was reported overnight Tuesday in Bor, with shooting breaking out again in the early hours of yesterday. “Hundreds of civilians have been streaming into our camp on the outskirts of the town, they’re now over the 1,000 mark, and Bor is very tense,” Contreras said. Ladsous told the Security Council that between 15,000 and 20,000 people had sought UN protection in Juba. The special representative of the UN secretary-general, Hilde Johnson, said it was “paramount” that the conflict did not assume ethnic dimensions. The US State Department issued a statement saying all non-emergency US gov- ernment personnel have been ordered to leave “because of ongoing political and social unrest” and also urged all Americans to get out of the coun- try “immediately”. — AFP Hundreds dead in S Sudan fighting as coup bid denied Fears of a return to civil war JUBA: People arrive to seek refuge in the UNMISS compound in Juba, yesterday. The mission is stepping up provision of basic health facilities. South Sudan’s fugitive former vice president denied accusations he led a coup bid against his archrival President Salva Kiir after days of fierce fighting that has killed hundreds of people and sent thousands fleeing to UN bases. — AFP GAZA CITY: Leading Palestinian human rights campaigner Dr Eyad Sarraj, who dealt with the mental health damage caused by political oppression and chal- lenged both Israeli and Palestinian abus- es, died after battling leukemia, his fami- ly said yesterday. He was 69. Trained in Egypt and Britain, Sarraj became the Gaza Strip’s first psychiatrist and established a community mental health program in 1990. The program focused on the most vulnerable groups, such as children and victims of torture and other abuses, and served as a foun- dation for his human rights work. Sarraj spoke extensively about the toll on mental health exacted by Israel’s rule over the Palestinians. Israeli occupation, he wrote in 1997, has left the Palestinians “exhausted, tormented and brutalized.” He was briefly jailed in the 1980s by Israel, which occupied Gaza from 1967 until 2005, and in the 1990s by the Palestinian Authority, a self-rule govern- ment then led by Yasser Arafat, according to his biography. Sarraj later served as chairman of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights, taking on a role of ombudsman for ordinary Palestinians. In recent years, he and other political independents worked at reconciling rival Palestinian political camps - the Islamic militant Hamas which has ruled Gaza since a violent 2007 takeover and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who administers parts of the West Bank. After Israel’s military offensive against Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009, Sarraj told United Nations investigators that post-traumatic stress disorders are wide- spread among Gaza’s children, according to his biography. Sarraj won greater recognition abroad than at home. He received the Martin Ennals Award for human rights defend- ers in 1998 and the Olof Palme Prize awarded by Sweden’s labor movement in 2010. Sarraj was born in the town of Beersheba in British-ruled Palestine in 1944, and fled with his family to Gaza during the 1948 war over Israel’s cre- ation. He studied medicine in Alexandria, Egypt, and earned a degree in psychiatry in Britain. In recent years, Sarraj had been bat- tling leukemia, according to his brother, Hakim. Sarraj died late Tuesday at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem where he had been undergoing treatment for more than a month, his brother said. Sarraj is survived by his wife, Nirmeen Kharma, and three sons. Funeral arrange- ments are pending. —AP Top Palestinian human rights campaigner dies GAZA: Gaza psychiatrist and prominent Palestinian human rights campaigner Dr. Eyad Sarraj, left, listens to Jewish-American scholar and activist Noam Chomsky, right. Relatives say Sarraj has died after a long battle with leukemia. He was 69. — AP ANKARA: Istanbul police leading a major corruption and bribery investi- gation targeting allies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have seized shoe boxes stashed with $4.5 million at the home of a state-owned bank’s chief executive, a Turkish news agency reported yesterday. Dozens of people, including the bank’s CEO and the sons of three key government ministers, were detained Tuesday for questioning in raids as part of the investigation which threat- ens to rock Erdogan’s 11-year tenure. The state-run Anadolu Agency said more than 50 people were in police custody as part of the investigation. Other reports said as many as 84 peo- ple were detained. Many believe the police operation is the fallout of a deepening rift between Erdogan’s government and a powerful U.S.- based moderate Islamic cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whose followers are reported to have a strong foothold within Turkey’s police and judiciary. Police searching the home of Halk Bank’s CEO, Suleyman Aslan, discov- ered the shoe boxes containing mon- ey on his bookshelves, the Dogan news agency reported. It said Aslan’s wife, who was also detained, was heard in a wiretapped telephone con- versation as saying “the greens have arrived,’ allegedly in reference to dollar bills. Dogan, a reliable news source, cited unidentified judicial officials for its report. A national police official said he could not immediately con- firm the report, while officials at the Interior Ministry refused comment. Halk Bank said police had requested information concerning their investi- gation but had no other comment on the case. Analysts say the investigation is the latest round of a power struggle between Gulen and Erdogan’s govern- ment. The cleric’s movement long supported Erdogan’s Islamic-based Justice and Development Party but has fallen out with the Turkish leader over his plans to close down private cram schools that are a major source of income for his group. In a sign that Erdogan was fighting back against the probe, five senior police officials were removed from duty yesterday, Turkish media reports said. They included commissioners in charge of combatting organized crime, smuggling and criminal finan- cial activity and oversaw the corrup- tion detentions, according to Dogan. Erdogan has suggested that the probe is a politically motivated “dirty trap” to harm his government. The investigation comes ahead of local elections in March that are largely seen as a vote of confidence in Erdogan’s government. Erdogan him- self is expected to be a candidate in the presidential election in August. Turkey’s financial markets have been turbulent since Tuesday’s raids, with the markets sliding and the Turkish Lira drifting downward against the dollar. Police confirmed to The Associated Press that the sons of three government ministers have been held for questioning: Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, Interior Minister Muammer Guler and Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar. Opposition parties have demand- ed that the three ministers resign and criticized the dismissal of the five police chiefs, calling it an attempt to cover up the scandal. — AP $4.5 million seized from Turkey bank chief’s home ISTANBUL: People arrested as part of a probe into alleged corruption arrive at the hospital for a medical check-up at the start of their custody in Istanbul yesterday. Turkish police detained more than 20 people including the sons of three cabinet ministers and several high-profile businessmen in a probe into alleged bribery and corruption, local media reported.— AFP Iran nuclear talks to resume VIENNA: Talks between experts from Iran and world powers on implement- ing last month’s nuclear deal will resume on Thursday in Geneva, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said yesterday. “The technical talks will be resumed tomorrow and continue until tomor- row” in Geneva, Nabila Massrali told AFP via email. The experts held four days of talks in Vienna last week but the Iranians walked out after Washington expanded its sanctions blacklist against Tehran. Under a land- mark November 24 deal struck in Geneva, Iran agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear programme for six months in exchange for modest sanc- tions relief and a promise not to impose new sanctions. But the United States last week put a dozen overseas companies on a blacklist for evading its sanctions, angering Tehran even though Washington said the new measures did not constitute new sanc- tions. But Tehran said the measures were “against the spirit” of the November 24 deal. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed Iran’s “discon- tent” in a phone call with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian news agency Fars reported on Monday. The State Department confirmed the call took place. During the six-month nuclear freeze, which has not started yet, Iran and the powers aim to ham- mer out a long-term comprehensive accord to end once and for all the standoff over Iran’s nuclear pro- gramme after a decade of failed attempts and rising tensions.—AFP