South Sudan: Dr. Machar Calls On Salva Kiir to Meet Him On The Table In Addis Ababa

Updated at 1:30Am, Feb 27, 2015(PS)

Feb 26, 2015(Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s former Vice President and the current Chairman of SPLM/SPLA [IO], Dr. Riek Machar Teny, calls on his rival, President Salva Kiir Mayardit, to pack his suitcase and meet him in Addis Ababa to expedite the peace agreement before the agreed dateline in less than a week.

“I call on President Salva Kiir to heed the cries of our people for peace. It is time he packed his suitcase and come to Addis Ababa such that together we quickly work out the terms of the peace agreement before the date line set by the IGAD mediators.” Dr. Machar states.

Machar, who is concerned of the suffering of his people, tells Salva Kiir that the time for procrastination is over and instead the leaders must act to restore law and order for the South Sudanese people to begin recreating their lives in peace and harmony.

“I am aware of the immense suffering the war brought to bear on the people of South Sudan. This is time not to procrastinate but to expedite the peace agreement such that our people reunite, recreate their lives in peace and harmony and we restore law and order to South Sudan” Dr. Machar speaks.

The armed opposition chairman continues to acknowledge that the conflict in the world’s youngest nation can only be resolved by peaceful means through negotiations.

“I want to reaffirm my commitment and the commitment of SPLM/SPLA to the IGAD mediated process and indeed I want to assure the Chief Mediator Ato Seyoum Mesfin and his colleagues Gen. Lazaro Sumbeywio and Gen. Dahbi of my confidence in their mediation.” The chairman said.

Following the break of February 7^th, 2015, President Salva Kiir and Dr. Machar were to resume talks, in the context of the third and final phase of the IGAD-led Peace Process on South Sudan, the negotiation on the Rainbow Document, essentially the IGAD proposed draft peace agreement consisting of points that require further negotiations and agreement by the principals of the parties to the conflict.

The third and final phase of the IGAD led Peace Process started on February 20^th; however, President Kiir has not shown up in the last seven days.

“I have been waiting here in Addis Ababa since the 29^th Extraordinary Assembly of IGAD’s Heads of State and Government on the conflict in South Sudan. It is now one week and President Salva Kiir has not shown up for the talks.” Dr. Riek reiterates.

Salva Kiir, who went to Nairobi on Feb 19^th to attend the East African Community summit, did not return to Juba until 21^st February, after meeting the exiled politicians, who reside in Kenya.

Following the meeting, Salva Kiir returned to Juba to revoke the imposed exile status on his former political detainees to return to the country as agreed during the Intra-SPLM Party Re-Unification agreement in Arusha, Tanzania.

In addition, Mr. Kiir issued an amnestied decree, urging all his rivals to return to Juba, a call that has been denounced by the other two factions, the SPLM/SPLA [IO] and SPLM-Uhuru.

The two opposing factions, IO and G10, have refused to return to Juba until a peace agreement that incorporate power sharing, amalgamation of armies, justice and accountability, federalism, political and security reforms has been reached.

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