SPLM-IO leader concludes “fruitful” US visit – Official
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
October 16, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – Leader of the South Sudan armed opposition group (SPLM-IO) and first vice president designate, Riek Machar, on Thursday wrapped up his three-week long official visit to the United States and returned to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Friday evening.
In an email exchange, SPLM-IO Representative to the UN, Miyong G. Kuon, told Sudan Tribune that the rebel leader and his delegation have also toured different states in the United States.
Kuon said Machar has held successful briefings and deliberations with South Sudanese communities in different US States and also with other concerned bodies.
The states which Machar visited and held briefings with South Sudanese, he said, included New York, Maine, Nebraska, Kansas, California, Washington DC, and Minnesota and attended by thousands of South Sudanese.
“In the meetings, Dr. Riek delivered the message of peace, healing and reconciliation” said Kuon adding
“He encouraged all South Sudanese to be the stewards of the peace agreement and ensure its full implementation.”
The opposition leader also broadly briefed supporters and citizens in Diaspora on the recently signed peace agreement and on the implementation process.
According to the rebel official, Machar made calls on the Diaspora community to use their technological connections and internet access to share messages of peace and focus discussions on issues that will promote the successful implementation of the peace agreement.
“All briefings included question and answer sessions that gave chance to participants to engage in discussion with the leaders” said Kuon.
During the tour, the delegation also met with American stakeholders in all the cities visited. Their visit, according to rebel official, has returned a strong gesture by the Americans to show the close partnership between US and South Sudan and to affirm their commitment for peace in South Sudan, describing the visit as fruitful.
Machar who met the US secretary of state, John Kerry, could not however meet officials of the White House as Susan Rice, president Barrack Obama’s national security advisor, cancelled a planned meeting in protest of violations of the peace agreement by the parties.
Neither the government’s vice-president, James Wani Igga, nor the former detainees representative, Pagan Amum, was also allowed to meet the White House officials.
A rebel official here in Addis Ababa told Sudan tribune that the rebel leader had already arrived in Addis Ababa on Friday evening.
The two South Sudan’s warring factions signed a final peace deal late in August to end 21-month long conflict in the youngest African nation which has killed tens of thousands and displaced an estimated two million people.
However with the parties still continuing to engage in clashes, implementation of the IGAD brokered peace accord remains to be a major challenge ahead.
Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin, the Chairperson of the IGAD Special Envoys for South Sudan on Friday called to give a Press Conference to update the media on the ongoing efforts to implement the Peace Agreement however it was cancelled for undisclosed reason.
It is not clear if the cancellation of the press conference is linked with Machar’s due arrival to Addis Ababa on Friday evening.
(ST)