IGAD-PLUS Mediation Hijacked In Kampala

August 14, 2015(Nyamilepedia) — As millions of South Sudanese are waiting eagerly for another dateline to end the deadly conflict in the war-torn South Sudan, four members of the mediating regional bloc led by the Ugandan president, Yoweveri Museveni, are believed to have hampered the recently proposed Compromised Peace Agreement that was to be signed on Monday.

According to Dr. Riek Machar, the leaders of SPLM/SPLA in Opposition, IGAD-PLUS mediation process “has been hijacked in Kampala”, Uganda.

Speaking to VOA, Machar confirmed that he held a three-hours meeting with the Chief Mediator, Mr. Seyoum Mesfin, who confided to him that the Compromised Peace Agreement document has been altered during the recent meeting in Kampala, Uganda.

According to Dr. Riek, the Kampala meeting which was attended by the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, and Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, changed the following proposals:

• No demilitarization of Juba.
• No Power sharing in the three regions but only at the national level.
• Security arrangement to be left to Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan

“This afternoon starting from 3 O’clock upto 6:20, I was briefed by the Chief Envoy of peace talks, that is Seyoum Mesfin. He briefed me about the meeting in Kampala. Apparently the proposed peace agreement has been changed in Kampala in favor of Salva Kiir. The proposed peace agreement states a provision which says the national capital shall be demilitarized, the new proposed is not that. This has been dropped” Machar said.

“To us this is a very critical issue, it is a deal breaker” said Machar

“The second issue is that the power sharing is limited to the national institutions, and I believe to the executives alone. There would be no power sharing in the states,” Machar continued.

According to the IGAD-PLUS proposed peace agreement, the SPLM/SPLA shall constitute 53% of the governments in the three states of Greater Upper Nile while the government takes 33% of power in the three states and 100% of power at the remaining seven states.

The document gives the government 53% of power at the national level and 33% to the SPLM/SPLA in Opposition.

The Kampala peace document, on the other hand, abolished power sharing at all states levels and only maintains the ratios at the national level.

The Position of SPLM/SPLA

Despite that the rebels were committed to sign the IGAD-PLUS peace proposal on August 17th, which has created friction in the movement, Machar now suggests that the whole proposal should be dropped after the Ugandan President manipulated its content in Kampala.

“The whole thing to me is off, because what would be discussed on the 17th? Are we going to discuss the Kampala agreement or are we going to discuss the proposed compromised agreement which was delivered by the IGAD Plus? There seems now confusion,” said Machar.

“It might be better off if they call off the whole process because embarrassment will take place, and we do not want to embarrass any body” Machar said.

“Now we don’t know which is the text, is it the Kampala text! is it the Addis Ababa text!, and I believe the text they will present to us on the 15th is the Kampala text” He adds.