IGAD regional leaders postpone South Sudan peace implementation summit

November 23, 2015 (JUBA) – A regional peace summit of East African heads of state and government, which was scheduled to take place on 23 November in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, has been postponed amid indications that the government was going ahead to implement a president Salva Kiir’s establishment order which tends to expand the constitutionally recognized 10 states to 28 states despite signing the peace agreement in August with former vice president and first vice president designate, Riek Machar.

Leaders of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) were scheduled for meeting in Juba to consult over how the peace could be implemented and to encourage the two main warring parties and other stakeholders which have signed the peace deal to declare officially and publicly that the war has officially come to an end and that no more fighting in the country would be expected to continue.

The summit would also have been an opportunity for the IGAD leaders, special envoys and representatives of South Sudanese leaders to launch the peace building process.

The regional leaders and their international partners were also expected to use the occassion as an opportunity to call for international support and to mobilize resources for the implementation of the peace deal.

The causes for postponing the summit were not immediately clear. South Sudanese information minister and the government spokesperson, Michael Makuei Lueth, told reporters on Monday that the government has been notified of the postponement of the summit by the secretariat and the office of the IGAD mediation team.

Lueth did not however say whether the summit is rescheduled to take place, when and where.

Mawien Makol, spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation also confirmed the deferral of the summit but attributed the cause for delaying the summit to unspecified date to logistical issues and other commitments of some of the key regional leaders expected to attend the summit.

Makol said the summit may only take place after the holding of an annual East African Community summit due to be held this month, but not certainly in Juba.

Many political experts and analysts also believe the cancelation could be related to commitment of the Kenyan and Ugandan presidents with preparations to receive the Roman Catholic Pope expected to visit Uganda and Kenya this month as well as election campaigns in Uganda and the governance issues relating to corruption scandal in Kenya which has led to the resignation of several key government officials in recent days.

Other frustrating factors, according to government critics, are linked to the behaviour of the government by intimidating the members of parliament to amend the constitution in a way that allows for creation of more states and for president Kiir to bolster his powers to dissolve state parliaments and appoint members of the state legislative assembly as well as the state governors during interim period.

Critics and peace activists argued that the action of the parliament is against the peace agreement. They call on the international community to press president Kiir to suspend implementation of the order.

But government supporters have rejected the calls to reverse the order and are pushing for immediate dissolution of the state parliament and subsequent appointment of state governors and new legislators in the states.

Opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by Machar has called on the government to reverse its unconstitutional process over 28 states which they said violated the peace agreement.

Speaking to the Juba-based United Nations-run Miraya FM radio on Monday, Machar’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, said although their advance team was ready to travel to Juba to kick off the implementation of the peace agreement, their travel has been delayed due to the recent attitude of the government.

Dak earlier told Sudan Tribune that his leader would not travel to Juba for the IGAD summit, adding that an advance team would return to Juba and spread to the other nine states first if pending political and security matters were resolved between the two parties.

He said Machar would only return to Juba to form a government of national unity with president Kiir which is expected to take place by January 2016.

He however said if the IGAD regional summit will take place in a neighbouring country except Uganda, Machar would personally participate in it.

(ST)