Nov 20, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — Two factions of the crumbling South Sudan’s Ruling Party, the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), met under the leadership of Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, at Entebbe on Monday this week.
The tightly restricted negotiations between the SPLM-Juba and SPLM-FDs, the former political detainees, popularly known with Gs [the G4, the G7, the G10 and the G12] has ended abruptly earlier this week.
According to one of the SPLM leaders, contacted by Nyamilepedia, the closed-door meetings were dominated by “emotional accusations”, which focused mostly on the past political scandals within the ruling party.
“We didn’t expect this would have happened at all but president Kiir poorly started the meeting with unusual blames and insults instead of unifying spirits.”said the SPLM leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“On our part, we thought that the president would have been more polite because he has been at the center of all these messes but we were surprised that he blames his victims for everything that went wrong in his leadership” he added.
The source revealed that the former SPLM Secretary General, Pagan Amum, responded “categorically in similar spirit” and the talks subsided.
SG Pagan blamed Salva Kiir for “abusing his political powers” that were entrusted on him by all South Sudanese. The former detainee also blames the president for how he poorly brewed and managed corruption and conflict in the country.
The accusations, which extremely exposed “private” political scandals within the ruling party, left the president speechless and pissed off most of the government delegation, except the Minister of Defense, Gen. Kuol Manyang, who shown approval to the contrary.
In the government delegation were Hon. Jemma Nunu Kumba, Hon Awut Deng Acuil, Marial Benjamin, Mark Nyipuoc, Deng Dau, Awan Guol Riak among other delegates.
The former detainees, led by Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, widow of the late founding leader of the SPLM, John Garang, comprised of FDs’ Secretary General Jok Luk, Pagan Amum, Deng Alor Kuol, Gier Chuang, Kosti Manibe, Chol Tong Mayay, among others.
The team of G10, in this meeting, were 12 in total, however, it is yet to be verified if the FDs would be reabsorbed into SPLM-Juba main stream. According to sources within the government, Salva Kiir was hopeful of a “new beginning” before this meeting.
Government officials speculate that the president plans to form a new cabinet that will feature most of the political detainees and some members of FDs are expected to be reabsorbed into the politburo of the SPLM Juba faction. However, the Entebbe talks hardly had a chance to reveal such plans, according to the participants.
Instead, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, who re-assumed the role of a “big brother” this time, urged “the warring factions” to reconcile and end the civil war.
“Last evening, I held a meeting with H.E Salva Kiir and his delegation, together with a team of 11people led by Maama Rebecca Garang,at Statehouse Entebbe. We discussed ways and means of resolving the conflict in South Sudan. I urged the warring factions to reconcile and ease the suffering of the people of South Sudan.” Museveni stated after the meeting at Entebbe on 16th Nov.
Museveni shown interest in reuniting the two factions after more than ten meetings with mama Rebecca, who constantly reminds the Ugandan president to play a neutral role in South Sudan conflict.
However, the amount of accusations that include sexual scandals, exposed in a supposedly reunifying meeting, would have swayed the Ugandan president.
President Museveni reportedly attempted to change the topic a couple of times, including blaming the Sudanese President, Omar el Bashir for the recent alleged bombing in Raja and Mabaan counties, however, the two sides shown very little interest.
The meeting was ended abruptly, leaving all except Salva Kiir, Pagan Amum, Kuol Manynag and Museveni, unspoken. The details were sealed as the SPLMers gloomily return to their respective bases, Juba and Nairobi on Wednesday.
President Salva Kiir, however, proceeded from Juba to Cairo, where he is meeting the Egyptian leadership to deliberate on Nile Water Deals, Military cooperation, IGAD-led Peace talks and a few other initiatives.
Ahead of this meeting, Salva Kiir accused the IGAD for being a stumbling block to reach an agreement with the armed opposition.
“Whenever we are about to reach a peace agreement, the IGAD imposes recess and holidays, this is why peace has not yet been signed” Kiir said at Juba military hospital, Juba, South Sudan before flying to Entebbe.
The trip to Egypt would marked Salva Kiir’s third trip within the region, after Entebbe and Khartoum, in two weeks. However, the first two trips have achieved very little as the South Sudan politicians continue to accuse Khartoum of bombing Mabaan and unusual military campaigns along the border.
In other reports, the SPLM-IOs, who shown little focus on Entebbe Reunification, are in consultations and prepare for a conference on “sustainable peace and good governance”.
“Our theme for the next splm/spla conference is search for sustainable peace and good governance in south sudan” Dr. Riek Machar, the Chairman of SPLM-SPLA (in Opposition), states.
