S. Sudanese rival leaders to meet in Nairobi
June 26, 2015 (NAIROBI) – South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir and armed opposition leader, Riek Machar, are expected to hold talks on Saturday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, sources told Sudan Tribune.
“Yes, our chairman and commander-in-chief, Comrade Dr. Riek Machar is expected to meet with president Salva Kiir on Saturday at the State House in Nairobi. This will be under the auspices of the Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta,” Machar’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, confirmed to Sudan Tribune.
He said the aim of the meeting was to find a common understanding on how best to approach the peace talks and expedite the process to reach a peace agreement in Addis Ababa.
ARUSHA SUMMIT
Dak also said their delegation to Tanzania for bilateral intraparty dialogue between factions of the ruling SPLM party had already arrived in Arusha to meet their counter-part from the government’s SPLM faction in preparation for a meeting between the top leaders.
“The delegation from our side is already in Arusha. They arrived on Friday evening,” he said.
He also said the top rebel leader was invited to the Arusha summit to be attended by a number of heads of state and government in the region. The summit expected to by Monday is to push for expeditious dialogue between president Kiir and former vice-president Machar on the outstanding issues in the reunification process of the ruling SPLM party.
The opposition group said they would not accept a “half-baked” reunification process that only dwelled on “mere” reinstatement to leadership positions without addressing the reform agenda and leadership issues that caused the crisis within the party.
They said they wanted to see the Arusha roadmap agreement translated into a new constitution for the party as well as complete work on the party’s basic documents such as internal regulations, manifesto, code of conduct, etc, in Arusha.
Also full implementation of a final agreement on intraparty dialogue, they said, would be connected to a peace agreement in Addis Ababa.
The opposition group however said they were committed to the peace process that will end the war and bring a sustainable peace and restore stability to the country.
(ST)