Juba permits rebels to travel to consultative meeting on UN planes
November 27, 2014 (JUBA) – South Sudanese government announced late on Wednesday it has now permitted all rebel commanders in the field to use available aircraft with the United Nations to a venue where they would hold consultative meeting, revising its previous decision which rejected the request.
The under-secretary at the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Abdun Terkoc, told reporters shortly after holding a meeting with foreign diplomats and heads of the international relief organisations that the president has accepted the request by the intergovernmental authority on development (IGAD), to the venue of the rebel consultative meeting in Pagak, a border location in Upper Nile state.
“It has never happened anywhere that an elected and legitimate government facilitates the meeting of the rebels fighting it, but because of peace, the president based on the request by the IGAD, decided to allow the United Nations and any other group ready to facilitate the transportation of the rebels to the consultation meeting, if this would be bring peace,” Terkoc told reporters on Wednesday.
IGAD, a regional bloc mediating the peace talks aimed at bringing an end to the more than 11-month-long conflict, announced earlier this month that the talks would resume after the two sides have carried out consultation with their constituencies on key contentious issues to be resolved by the main rival parties.
If implemented, the move would now help the field armed opposition commanders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), allied to the former vice president, Riek Machar to meet at Pagak in eastern Upper Nile State to deliberate over a proposed power-sharing deal.
The opposition initially planned to hold its consultative meeting to start between the 19th and 20th in their controlled area, but the meeting was delayed due to several factors, including transport.
(ST)