[An Nahar] South Sudan's sacked vice president Riek Machar said Tuesday he was ready for peace talks with his estranged mentor President Salva Kiir to bring an end to deadly festivities across the country."Yes we are ready for talks. I have formed my delegation," he told Radio La Belle France Internationale (RFI), adding that the negotiations would likely be held in Æthiopia.
"I also spoke this morning to (U.S.) Secretary of State John F.
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
and I spoke to the foreign minister of the Federal Republic of Æthiopia, explained to him my readiness for talks," Machar said.
He said he would not take part in the talks but had formed a "very high-level delegation... with powers to reach agreement."
"We want a democratic nation. We want democratic free and fair elections. We want Salva Kiir to call it a day," he said.
Machar said the talks should be held on "neutral ground". Asked specifically if he was considering Æthiopia, he said: "That's the idea. Æthiopia, yes."
Later on Tuesday, the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
said around 75 bodies had been discovered in a mass grave in rebel-held Bentiu, the capital of South Sudan's oil-rich Unity State, following a surge of violence in the world's youngest nation.
"We have discovered a mass grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly at least two other mass graves in Juba," U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement.
Pillay's spokeswoman told AFP the mass grave in Bentiu contained around 75 bodies.
Pillay expressed "grave concern" over the ethnically-tinged killings that have raged across South Sudan for more than a week as troops loyal to Kiir battle those backing his rival Machar.
The official toll has stood at 500 dead for days, although numbers are feared to be far higher, aid workers say. Witnesses that AFP has spoken to recount a wave of atrocities, including an orchestrated campaign of mass killings and rape.
The unrest has also taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting Kiir's Dinka tribe against the Nuer tribe, to which Machar belongs.