Opposition group says dismayed by IGAD threat to label non-signatories as peace spoilers
November 18, 2018 (JUBA) – The opposition People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) which is a non-signatory of the revitalized peace agreement, said confused and disappointed following a threat by the IGAD to declare the holdout groups as spoilers of peace and called to open the deal for negotiations.
The IGAD Council of Ministers on 16 November directed the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan Ismail Wais to reach out the non-signatories to join the peace agreement. The executive body which also includes the South Sudanese foreign minister further said they would “be labelled spoilers of the peace process” if they reject this ultimatum.
“PDM and the oppressed people of South Sudan are most dismayed that the IGAD and Council of Ministers who followed Foreign Minister Nhial Deng Nhial’s lead and steer to label PDM and legitimate opposition colleagues as peace spoilers,” said a statement extended to Sudan Tribune signed by PDM Chairperson Hakim Dario.
Dario further went to say that the peace guarantors are “siding with the incumbent President use of R-ARCSS as his latest Trojan horse to gain legitimacy, backed by Sudan and Uganda and other IGAD countries tacit support”.
During the revitalization process, Dario repeatedly accused the IGAD mediation team of ignoring its proposals, particularly that one related to the establishment of a three provinces federal system during the transitional period.
In his statement, the PDM leader who is also the SSOA-Sawaka Secretary for Foreign Relations, called on the African Union together with AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC), TROIKA and the UN Security to rethink the role of IGAD mediation and its impartiality in the approach to the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan.
He further proposed to open up R-ARCSS to “incorporate provisions for establishment of a Federal Government during the transitional period, and power-sharing between the people of Upper Nile, Equatoria, and Bahr al Ghazal, in three-states or regions as echoed by the National Dialogue Steering Committee”.
The government-appointed National Dialogue body proposed in a report released on 23 October to revert back to the three colonial provinces of Bahr al-Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile and to restore with it the same subdivision of administrative districts as they had existed before.
The opposition group further cast doubt on the participation of the IGAD countries in the UN Regional Protection Force saying they are largely part of the conflict.
Instead, he proposed to reach out the Economic Community of West African States and other countries out of the IGAD bloc contribute to a restructured RPF.
On Friday, the PDM issued a statement describing the revitalized peace agreement as a power-sharing deal between the elites of the at the expense of all the 64 tribes of our people.
“The R-ARCSS needs to be re-opened to make it into a people-centric agreement, with 33% power-sharing allocation to each of the three regions of Upper Nile, Equatoria and Bahr al-Ghazal,” said the non-signatory group.
(ST)