S. Sudan blocks SPLM-IO officials from traveling to Uganda
January 25, 2016 (JUBA) – A number of senior South Sudan armed opposition (SPLM-IO) officials were on Monday blocked by national security operatives from joining their leader, Riek Machar in Kampala, Uganda.
By order of the director of the internal security service some SPLM-IO officials including its secretary general, Dhieu Mathok Diing Wol, and chairman of national committee for federal affairs, Ramadan Hassan Laku, were prevented from travelling to Kampala at Juba airport on Monday .
The armed opposition’s head of information and public relations, Mabior Garang de Mabior, said the actions taken by security operatives were uncalled since none of their members was a prisoner or a political detainee.
According to Mabior, the SPLM-IO advance team was within the government controlled area to show their commitment to the implementation of a peace deal signed with government in August 2015.
“The leadership of the SPLM/SPLA in Opposition strongly condemns the oppressive tendencies of the national security of the republic of South Sudan. The director general of internal security bureau has on several occasions impeded movements of the advance team of the SPLM/SPLA-IO on dubious grounds”, he said in a statement issued Monday.
He said the director general of the internal security bureau on 19 January blocked members of the group from travelling to Nairobi, Kenya, for a medical trip, and a week later stopped members of the SPLM-IO from travelling to a join their chairman, who is on a peace mission to Kampala.
The leadership of the SPLM-IO, Mabior said, calls on the president to control those within his government who making peace efforts difficult.
Members of the SPLM-IO advanced team are in Juba to implement the agreement on the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan (ARICSS).
“We are not prisoners of war or political detainees”, said Mabior, vowing to ensure a complaint is filed to the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC).
Machar left the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa for Kampala on Sunday to meet Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni to seek help from the latter with regard to outstanding issues in the implementation of the nation’s peace agreement.
He said Uganda, which was part of the conflict, has lately been playing an important role for the two conflicting parties to reach crucial agreements.
Machar said he believed Kampala will play a crucial role with regard to the existing misunderstanding on the 28 states, a decree which has become an emerging challenge threatening the implementation of the peace deal.
(ST)