Machar does not live in exile, says his spokesperson
April 3, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – The leader of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), Riek Machar, does not live in exile, but in his General Headquarters of Pagak in South Sudan, says his media official.
“He has not been in exile. He has been in his General Headquarters of Pagak. Pagak is in South Sudan. It is located in Upper Nile state in South Sudan. It is not in Ethiopia or in Kenya,” Dak told Sudan Tribune.
“Dr. Machar will only be returning to the national capital, Juba, from another part of South Sudan,” he said.
Some media outlets including senior officials of South Sudanese government have sometimes referred to Machar’s expected return from “exile.”
For instance, after Machar’s appointment as First Vice President by President Salva Kiir, the incumbent Vice President, James Wani Igga, publicly called on Machar to return from exile to Juba, charging that a First Vice President should not carry out his responsibility from exile.
But Dak said it is misleading to call Pagak an exile when it is a South Sudanese town near the Ethiopian border. Pagak, he said, was a Payam under Maiwut county which President Kiir himself visited during the 2010 elections to seek votes from its inhabitants.
Machar particularly spends several days or weeks in Addis Ababa during the peace process and after its signing.
The opposition leader’s press secretary however acknowledged that his boss had been travelling to capitals of foreign countries and spends days for the purposes of consultations and mobilization of support towards either the peace negotiations in the past two years or its implementation after its signing in August last year.
“Sure, he sometimes spends days in Addis Ababa for two reasons: One, this was to avail himself at the venue for regular and timely consultations with his negotiation team during the peace talks in order to speed up the process. Two, after the peace agreement was signed he sometimes also has to consult with the IGAD leadership in Addis Ababa and brief them on progress and challenges in the implementation of the agreement,” Dak further explained.
He said Machar will return to Juba from Pagak as did some of his senior generals who were flown into the national capital from the General Headquarters.
Hundreds of the opposition’s forces have been flown into Juba from various locations in South Sudan to make up their respective units of the joint integrated forces which will take charge of the security of the capital and protection of the SPLM-IO’s leadership.
The opposition’s advance team, he said, also took off from Pagak although they had to transit through Gambella Airport across the border in Ethiopia since the plane which carried them to Juba could not land in the small airstrip in Pagak.
(ST)