October 23rd 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan exiled opposition leader Pagan Amum has welcomed a decision by opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar and Dr. Lam Akol to reject the formation of the Reconstituted Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) in November.
Machar, the leader of the SPLM-IO, and Akol, leader of the NDM, rejected on Sunday during a meeting of a UN delegation with the parties to the agreement, calls on the parties to form the long-awaited unity government on November 12th.
The two prominent politicians argued that the action on government formation should be postponed to a later date to enable for the completion of outstanding issues.
The revitalized peace agreement signed last September by Kiir’s government with opposition groups called for a unity government in eight months but with preconditions such as formation of a unified army, police and national security service as well as determination of the number and boundaries of states.
Speaking to Nyamilepedia on Tuesday, Pagan Amum, the Real SPLM leader said Machar and Akol made the right decision to reject the formation of a unity government.
Amum said the parties had agreed to form the government after pre-transitional tasks such as the security arrangements and the number of states are complete and said this would be a violation to the agreement if the parties formed the government without this tasks .
“Dr. Riek Machar and Dr. Lam Akol have taken the right decision as per the letter and spirit of the so called Revitalized Agreement, to call for a second extension of the pre-transitional period,” Amum who is in the United States said.
“Remember that the parties agreed not to form the government until a number of tasks are implemented during the pre-interim period of 8 months. But because these tasks were not implemented by May, the signatories agreed to delay the formation of R-TGoNU for six months, unfortunately President Kiir and his government failed to avail the $100 million promised in May,” Amum added.
Amum further accused President Salva Kiir of intentionally obstructing the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement pointing to a call by Kiir in May saying the six-month extension would not be enough for the completion of the pre-transitional tasks.
“The government, in fact, obstructed the implementation of these tasks. Remember Kiir gave a signal in May that these issues would not be implemented in six months and that it may require not less than a year,” Amum said.
“With that Kiir was directing his subordinates not to implement or to go slow on the implementation of pre-transitional tasks particularly those relating to security arrangements and the number of states,” he added.
