South Sudan’s Machar and AU’s Konare discuss peace implementation
October 30, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan’s first vice-president designate, Riek Machar, and the head of the African Union’s (AU) high-level representative, former Malian president Alpha Oumer Konera, met in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday and discussed the importance of full implementation of the peace agreement signed in August by warring parties in the young country.
“My Chairman, Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, and the AU high level representative on South Sudan, President Alpha Oumer Konera, met on Thursday in Addis Ababa and discussed the importance of implementation of the peace agreement. The two leaders shared concerns which have proven to become obstacles to the implementation of the peace agreement,” said James Gatdet Dak, SPLM-IO’s leader’s official spokesman, in a press statement a copy of which Sudan Tribune has also obtained.
He said issues of concern they shared included the stalemate in the implementation of the security arrangements, unilateral creation of 28 states by President Salva Kiir in violation of the peace agreement as well as lack of resources to fund activities which should be carried out in the 90 days of the pre-transitional period.
The activities among others, he said, include cantonment of forces in various selected points, dissemination of the peace agreement to the populace in South Sudan and abroad in order to win their full support to its implementation as well as preparing the ground for reconciliation and healing among the people.
“The two leaders also stressed the importance to revive the Arusha agreement on reunification of SPLM factions. The need to discuss and agree on pending issues in achieving the reunification of the party was shared in the meeting,” he said.
In a separate interview with Sudan Tribune, Dak also said the former Malian president shared the concerns raised by the opposition leader as obstacles to peace in South Sudan.
He further added that the AU envoy urged the SPLM factions to continue with the reunification process in Arusha and conclude the unity of the ruling party.
However, Dak said President Kiir’s reservations in the peace agreement are the source of the violations of the peace agreement, including the abrupt unilateral creation of 28 states, when he [Kiir] “neither proposed them during the peace negotiations in Addis Ababa nor included them in the list of his reservations when he signed the peace deal on 26 August in Juba.”
He also blamed the government in the stalemate over the security arrangements, saying the government had been providing wrong interpretations to the provisions of the security deal.
(ST)