S. Sudan rebel leader says will not sign “shifted” peace proposal
August 14, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan’s former vice president, Riek Machar, who leads the armed opposition faction of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), said he will not sign a peace agreement by 17 August unless regional leaders undo their new “shifted” proposal which emanated from the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
“We are dismayed by the shift in the position of the IGAD Plus mediation by unceremoniously abandoning its proposal in the favour of the position adapted in Kampala. This is a repeat of the fiasco of August 25, 2014 Protocol, when the mediation presented to the IGAD Extraordinary Assembly of IGAD Heads of State and Government a text different from what had been negotiated by the stakeholders,” rebel leader, Riek Machar said in a press statement he issued on 14 August, which was also extended to Sudan Tribune .
“The result was that the SPLM/SPLA refused to sign that document and has dragged the talks for another one year while the suffering of the people have been heightened to a deplorable situation,” he said.
He said he was officially informed on behalf of the IGAD chairman, Haile Mariam Desalegn, by Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin, IGAD chief mediator, that the Kampala meeting of 10 August had made a shift from the original IGAD proposal.
The Kampala’s so-called ’Front-Line States’ meeting which was called by president Yoweri Museveni of Uganda was also attended by the Ethiopian prime minister, Haile Mariam Desalegn, who chairs IGAD, and president Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya who serves as IGAD rapporteur as well as by Sudanese foreign minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, who represented president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
Machar in his press statement said the Kampala shift was undermining the very peace proposal and the whole process.
“The outcome of the Kampala summit not only contradicted but also completely undermines the “IGAD PLUS Proposed Compromise Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan,” he said.
For instance, the four “frontline states’ in Kampala withdrew the provision for power-sharing in the states. The IGAD-Plus proposal initially said in the three states of Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei states in the greater Upper Nile region, the government would get 33%, the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) would get 53% and the former detainees and political parties would equally share the remaining 14%.
IGAD also shifted from its previous proposal which sought for demilitarization of the capital, Juba. The opposition supported the demilitarization of the capital, including state capitals and other major towns in the country, arguing that it would restore confidence and avoid repeat of massacres of civilians in the towns by the army.
The rebel leader also narrated that when IGAD gave the two warring parties time to consult with their respective constituencies, it was on the basis of the IGAD-Plus’s 24 July’s original compromise agreement that the deliberations were done and resolutions passed and not on the Kampala position.
“This time round, we want to state our commitment to negotiating on just and sustainable peace. We equally state clearly to the IGAD Plus mediation, the IGAD Region, and the International Community that the SPLM/SPLA will not accept any draft text different from that of July 24th 2015 IGAD-Plus Proposed Compromise Draft Agreement as the basis for negotiation as the SPLM/SPLA leadership deliberated and debated this proposal in a conference from 3rd – 5th August 2015,” he declared.
He said the Kampala proposal would not bring peace but “exacerbate and escalate the war.”
Machar called on the African Union’s (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) to make public the report on atrocities committed by the warring parties since 15 December 2013.
“Finally, we are disappointed that President Salva Kiir has not shown up for the Principals negotiations scheduled for 13-14 August 2015,” he said.
(ST)