South Sudan SPLM-IO urges UN to take lead in peace implementation
October 4, 2015 (KAMPALA) – Opposition faction, SPLM-IO, has commended the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) for protecting civilians in danger from the government’s killing machinery and further urged the mission to play a leading role in the implementation of the recently signed peace agreement to end the 21-month long civil war in South Sudan.
A seven-member officials of the SPLM-IO led by John Juan Dong, met with a team from the United Nations on Saturday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and discussed the expected role UNMISS should play in ensuring full implementation of the peace deal which the two rival leaders, president Salva Kiir and opposition leader, Riek Machar, sealed in August.
“We have agreed on the UNMISS mandate to be extended for the next three years until the elections are held in the country after securing the safety of civilians in the region and also to participate fully in the election [monitoring] to make sure that the elections are transparent and fair,” Dong said in a statement he extended to Sudan Tribune on Saturday.
The meeting with the United Nations Economic Commission, he said, also aimed at equipping its technical and human resources to undertake ways by empowering the South Sudanese in the peace peace implementation process.
The meeting also touched on the need to repatriate the internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently taking shelter in the UNMISS compounds in the country to their locations of choice.
Dong also urged the UN mission in South Sudan to help the country in terms of capacity building, through training the joint police forces, technical training in schools and to help improve health facilities and help prepare military justice for fair trials.
“We are calling on the UNMISS as well as the I GAD plus to make sure that all organized forces are [redeployed] outside of Juba,” he said.
He accused president Kiir’s government of allegedly deploying an estimated 10,000 armed personnel with small arms and dressed in civilian clothes to remain in Juba, adding this will cause insecurity in the national capital.
“We are recommending for only joint police to patrol and protect civilians to be in Juba in the next coming transitional government of national unity (TGONU),” he said.
The members reaffirm their commitment to the reconciliation and healing processes to take place among the members in the entire region of South Sudan, starting with the political leaders.
(ST)