Kiir implementing reservations, not peace accord: Garang

February 23, 2017 (JUBA) – The widow of John Garang, the founder of South Sudan’s ruling party (SPLM) has said the peace deal, which was signed in 2015 to end more than three years conflict has collapsed, citing failure to implement the security arrangement.

“We talk about peace in a vacuum because our leaders are not ready to listen. When Dr.Riek left the country, Taban was put in place of Dr.Riek in less than two or three days and when he was appointed the language changed and was saying Riek should wait for elections”, Rebecca Garang told a briefing of South Sudanese in the Diasporas in the United States.

Rebecca said some of the foreign diplomats in Juba mistakenly supported replacement of the former first vice president Riek Machar with Taban Deng Gai on the ground that the latter would impress president Kiir to implement the agreement because of the perception that the former would cooperate with him than he would do with Machar.

“But how can peace come to South Sudan when security arrangement has collapsed and the person who is signatory to the agreement is not there? It means there is no peace. So I want to tell you there is no agreement being implemented in Juba to tell you the truth,” she said, adding that Kiir is implementing reservations, not the accord.

Garang, a former minister for roads and transport, fell out with the Juba government after openly criticising President Kiir’s administration and proposing regime change.

The 2015 peace accord, which temporarily ended the ongoing conflict, has not been fully implemented, with the peace monitoring body (JMEC) accusing the warring factions of reneging on what they had committed themselves to during it’s signing.

(ST)