President elect, donald trump, has held his first News Conference since winning the election and in it he attacked the intelligence agencies, claiming they are behind the leak of a dossier suggested russian agents have information they could use to blackmail him. They looked at that nonsense that was released by maybe the intelligence agencies, who knows . Maybe the intelligence agencies. Labour has joined senior doctors in calling on the government to put more money into social care to put more money into social care to ease pressure and nhs services. The teenage girl has been remanded into secure accommodation following the murder of the 70 year old kayleigh ruff. The Director General of the bbc says he wants to reinvent the high player to make at the Top Online Tv Service in the uk by 2020. You are up today. Now, it is aardvark. Welcome to hardtalk, with me, zeinab badawi. The people of south sudan have known little peace for many decades, and independence in 2011 has brought them nothing but war, increasing poverty and starvation, and suffering. Tens of thousands have died, and more than 3 million have been forced to leave their homes in the past three years. The United Nations says, the current spate of fighting amounts to Ethnic Cleansing, and could spiral into genocide. The Main Rebel Group is headed by the former Vice President , riek machar, who is now in exile. My guest today is his wife, angelina teny, who is a Senior Member of the movement. How much responsibility do they bear for the suffering in south sudan . Angelina teney, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you very much. The situation in south sudan is dire. What are you hearing about whats going on on the ground . Well, you said it is dire. The humanitarian situation has reached a level of catastrophe. The war is escalating even further, and the economic situation, what we could say is it is no longer on a free fall, but rather it has crashed the country. So, in a nutshell, you can say that the situation for the normal citizen, for the person there, is really one of desperation. The United Nations humanitarian chief, stephen 0brien, says that 6 million people, thats half of the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance. 5 million are in danger of starvation. 3 million have been forced to leave their homes. A million refugees, 2 million internally displaced people. Who do you think is responsible for this . Well, i can say that we are responsible for ending it, and this is where the responsibility. Well all come to that, about ending it, but who do you think is behind all this . I would say the way our president , president salva, Led The Country has really led to this situation, because what had happened is that our country, just before starting, from 2011, was turned into a police state. So dissenting views are really not accepted. Then, when members of the ruling party, the splm, tried to start a dialogue within the party in order to recreate a vision and a direction for the country, the president did not welcome that. You claim president salva kiir of south sudan, but i have to put it to you that your husband, riek machar, who is the main rebel leader, has been a significant player in south sudan for three decades. Hes been a Vice President , on and off, for 15 years, and he has to share the blame for the situation that the people of south sudan find themselves in today. Well, definitely i cannot say that he has been out of the system. He has been in the system in south sudan, but what you have to know is that my chairman, when he decided to actually raise the concerns that our country was facing, that is what brought the fallout, and that is what actually led president salva to introduce violence, in order to rest finally peaceful dialogues within the party and within the country. Youre talking about the recent fallout that the two men had last year . Yes. About that one, notjust from 2013, because you know weve been engaged in trying to, during the interim period, really to ensure that the referendum succeeds. While we were doing that, president salva was also asserting his dictatorship. 0ur Disagreements started. He was elected, and your husband, riek machar, you were referring to the referendum in 2011 that brought independence to south sudan, has been an ally, a deputy to him. But let me just carry on my Train Of Thought for you, which is that riek machar must share the burden of responsibility for whats going on. South sudan analyst, former Deputy Defence minister majak dagoot refers to the gun class in south sudan, sectarian warlords, like riek machar, who have historically used violence, channelled through appeals to ethnic nationalism, to hijack the state for personal gain. Well, i would dispute that as an accurate statement, because also majak, as you know, is another politician from south sudan. But he has been allied to your. However, i want to establish the fact that my husband, or let me say my chairman. Chairman of the Splm In 0pposition. Has been on records all the time trying to correct the situation, trying to introduce institutional reforms, systems of governance that will ensure a democratic transformation, and this is actually what brings the fallout between the leaders. 0k. I want to make it. I am not here to say that there arent many abundant criticism of president salva kiirs government. There are many, from the International Community, from within south sudan. But i am talking to you, as a Senior Member of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement in 0pposition. If there are issues to put to the government of south sudan, we on hardtalk will do that when we talk to them. But if i mayjust continue with putting to you some of the criticisms that are made about your movement. So, you say that civilians are being killed on the basis of tribal affiliations, but there are reliable reports that rebel forces of your opposition movement, or affiliated with your movement, have also killed and raped civilians. What is your response to that . If you go back to the records, including even the un report, you will find since when we officially established the splmio in april 2014, that those those incidences have, in one way or another, what ever that had happened before that we have investigated, and we have actually addressed, since that, our movement has not made it a policy, and therefore, you will not find that there are incidences actually attributed to us since we established organised. Well, ill give you one. Sorry to interrupt you. Human rights watch says in october 2016, rebels claiming affiliation with riek machar ambushed a convoy of cars and trucks carrying civilians fleeing yei, killing mostly dinka. The dinka, of course, are the tribe of president salva kiir according to the cia world factbook, about 36 of south sudans population. Then nuer tribe, from which you and your husband hail, about 15 . I know the figures are disputed, that they are the most recent ones we have. Anyway, the point is that dinka were killed, mostly, in this incident in yei. An 11 year old boy said, they started to shoot, and i lay down. 0thers fell on top of me. The rebels then burned the truck, killing dozens of occupants inside. We have come across that. Actually, my chairman has directed an investigation if these are people truly affiliated to us, because our people on the ground are under orders, with clear and specific instructions, that they are not fighting a war with anyone. Rather, they are resisting the onslaught from the government. So that incident that has been attributed by the human rights watch, we have investigated. 0ur forces on that part of south sudan have actually denied any responsibility, or being part of it. I give you another example. Have you done anything about this . The United Nations mission, unmiss, in south sudan, said in a very detailed report in 2014, pro Riek Machar Forces sacked the oil town of bentiu in april 2014, Killing Hundreds of civilians, notably in the mosque, the hospital, the market and surrounding areas. Definitely, actually, the icrc has done a report and we have a commission, and we have actually made the report public, and the people that were identified by the icrc were brought to book by. The International Committee of the red cross, yes. I could go on and on, actually. I dont want to keep on doing that, but there are. You know, unmiss, the United Nations mission, says there are reasonable grounds to believe that violations of International Human rights and humanitarian law have been committed by both parties to the conflict. I would not deny absolutely to say nothing had happened, that i would say it is not a policy, and we are very determined to always, when Something Like that happens, it is addressed, it is investigated, and the culprits are actually brought to account. Because. War is tragic. Yes, it is tragic, but we, as a responsible organisation, dont believe you should allow people who do that to get away with it. Unmiss, the un, is urging both sides to control their forces. Can you control your forces . We have, because if you go back to the incidences of thejuba crisis onjuly 8th, you would find that the way the Splm In 0pposition conducted themselves, you would find civilians telling you that we have actually got directives and protections, and we have shown what to do and where to go, and so on, whereas after wed withdrawn, the catastrophe that happened in juba after that, well, Everybody Knows about it, the killings. You are talking about the active combat that broke out injuly last year in the south sudanese capital, juba, between salva kiir and riek machars forces. But i have to say to you that you did not emerge without criticism from that situation. Human rights watch again said, regardless of the intentions of machars forces, of going into civilian sites, the impact of the manoeuvre was to endanger the thousands of civilians who were sheltering in these Un Protection sites, and that would constitute a war crime of using human shields. And they also said, any dinka civilians who remained in the town risked death. So you raised one example of what went on there injuly, and im saying to you, again, that the forces of the Splm In 0pposition had not emerged unscathed. Well, we tried to withdraw. Given that our side was very close to the Un Protection site, this is where the whole battle actually took place. So we had no way of withdrawing other than through that route, because the un is very close. But what ever your intentions were, you endangered civilians. I think it is worth explaining that, as the conflict Research American alan boswell, based in kenya, writing a book about south sudan, says, i think you have to different wars going on in south sudan. You have a fight between president salva kiir and riek machars coalitions over who will be king, but there are a bunch of smaller groups in south sudan who are waging war against the kingdom itself. So we accept that there are a range of different perpetrators and unnamed Militia Groups and so one, but the fact does remain, and i ask you again, what do you say to the criticisms that forces of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement in 0pposition have committed some of these atrocities against civilians rape, looting, killing, violence, that you yourself had condemned . What do you say . We are saying that, as a movement, we do not condone any of this. Even when we were negotiating the agreement, the agreement and the resolution of the conflict in the republic of south sudan, we stood very firm, and we are on record. We fought for the inclusion of transitional justice. Actually, we say justice and accountability. And this is still the cornerstone. And this is because we feel that we must end impunity, and we must make people who actually commit crimes against other human beings must be made accountable. Including anybody from your. Including your chairman, your husband . We call for it, we call for it because we feel that it is needed. It is what will end the situation in south sedan. It will end impunity, and we say it without exception. Without exception . Including your husband . We say it without exception. Right. Just on this point of genocide, which is a very, very important one, because adama dieng, the un special adviser on the prevention of genocide, said at the end of last year, after visiting south sudan, i was dismayed that what i saw confirmed my concern that there is a strong risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines with the potential to spiral into genocide. I do not say that lightly. I mean, is that a possibility . 0ur thinking is not even looming, but rather in progress. Already the 0basanjo report, which is the report by the commission of the. The former president of nigeria. Had already established that Ethnic Cleansing injuba took place in 2013. In the span of one week, over 20,000 people were killed just because they belonged to an ethnic group. This was done by men in uniform, by government. Well, thats your accusation, and im sure it will be looked at. Now, when you come to this situation today, it is even worse, because it has spread. It is in southern unity, it is in central equatoria, it is in western equatoria. We have just walked from juba, afterjuly. And we have seen it with our own eyes, and it is a plan organised by the government. President salva is on record saying that we will hand them down like rats. Well, as i said, we are not here. There are criticisms made about salva kiir, but i have to put it to you that you are parties to this conflict, and arguably, are fuelling a lot of the violence that you yourself condemn. For example, in september last year, your movement, the Splm In 0pposition, declared war on what it described as the regime injuba, saying it wants to wage a Popular Armed resistance against the authoritarian and fascist regime of president salva kiir in order to bring peace, freedom, democracy and the rule of law in the country. We have not declared war. We said resistance. Armed resistance. Because there is already a war going on, because already the regime of salva was already on offensive. But you are parties to the conflict. The evidence to that is that, unless you are telling us dont protect yourself. I have to say to you, but you know yourself, angelina teney, that there was widespread condemnation when that statement was made. The us state departments spokesman, john kirby, 28 september, said, the Us Government strongly condemns riek machars statement. A joint statement by the troika powers, the eu, norway and the us, as well as other governments also condemned calls by the Opposition Leaders for a renewal of armed conflict. Further fighting wont solve south sudans pressing political and economic challenges. It will only increase the suffering of south sudans people, they said. I could go on and on. It was widespread condemnation. I can tell you that if you saw the communique that we issued during that meeting, it talks about a political process that is needed for the resuscitation of this agreement. That statement of the resistance was actually the last point in that communique. So it was an option for the people of south sudan to continue, to be defended from the onslaught that is going on. So our declaration is actually for a political process. It isnt. Look, that is not how it is being seen at all. Let me ask you this. Im correcting you. The east African Group of nations, known as egad, has said, on the 9th Of December in a communique, we call upon the Splm In 0pposition to renounce violence as a means of solving the problems of south sudan. Do you renounce violence . We say, tell the government injuba to stop the offensive, the pursuit of people based on ethnic affiliation, based on political affiliation. We say that if you hold the government to account, because the government injuba gets encouraged with this statement, and they are being let off the hook. In fact, they are the one on the offensive. Whatever the opposition is doing, its basically fighting back, to resist. So you wont renounce violence . Youre saying youre resisting, but you use violence to resist . What else to we do . The other options are, you go to be a refugee, you go to be internally displaced, or you go to a Un Protection camp, but if you find yourself, that there is a way you can fight back, these people will fight back, especially when there is no hope now, without any Peace Process in place. You talk about the Peace Process. Of course, there was a deal in august 2015, known as the agreement for a resolution of the conflict in south sudan. You think that there is still a way forward by resuscitating that . Definitely. But there are also reports, as we had in october, that riek machar announced that that agreement was dead. It has collapsed. The agreement has collapsed. We feel that it needs to be renewed so that it is resuscitated, so that the people of south sudan are given a chance again to start. Remember, we did take risks and we did go tojuba to implement that agreement. 0nly even based on some of the un reports, as you know, president salva started to introduce violence, and we had to leave juba under that fire. Now we are still committed to a political settlement. This politi