SPLM-IO refutes claims that peace agreement removes leader’s bodyguards

August 30, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudanese opposition faction of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) said their leader, Riek Machar, who is a designated first vice president in accordance with peace deal with president Salva Kiir, will have bodyguards in the capital, Juba, contrary to what some media outlets said to the contrary.

Machar’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, said what was reported in the media was a misinterpretation of Article 5 of the Transitional Security Arrangements in the accord which the two leaders signed on 17 and 26 August 2015, to end the 20-month long civil war in the country.

“That is a misinterpretation of Article 5.1.1. of the Peace Agreement. Presidential guards which are provided for in the Transitional Security Arrangement means guards for top leaders of the two parties,” he told Sudan Tribune on Sunday.

Article 5 of the Transitional Security Arrangements stipulates that forces shall be redeployed by a radius of 25km outside Juba, but with exception of presidential guards and forces to protect military barracks, bases and warehouses as well as joint integrated police drawn from the two sides.

This was a revision from the first IGAD Plus peace compromise proposal of 25 July which gave president Kiir 265 bodyguards and Machar with 195 bodyguards in the capital.

But Dak explained that Article 5.1.1. which provides for presidential guards in the capital meant the combined guards for the two rival leaders and not exclusively for president Kiir.

He further said the IGAD Plus compromise agreement removed the proposed size and composition of the presidential guards for the two leaders and left it to the two parties to determine it in a workshop that will be organized in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in September in implementation of the security arrangements.

He also said the two parties will determine the size and composition of military forces that will remain in Juba to protect military barracks, bases and warehouses as well as joint integrated police to be deployed in Juba, Malakal, Bor and Bentiu in addition to other unspecified areas.

(ST)