South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar (left) shakes hands with
President Salva Kiir after the formation of the new cabinet of the
Transitional Government at the Cabinet Affairs Ministry in Juba on April
29, 2016. The two fell out, again, in July the same year. PHOTO | AFP
Could the continued detention of the South Sudan rebel leader,
Dr Riek Machar in South Africa and the perception of bias by regional
body Igad, derail the political talks set for February?
Opposition
members are concerned that the recent visit to South Africa by
President Salva Kiir was meant to reinforce Dr Machar’s house arrest and
could send a wrong signal to the rebel side’s negotiators.
Two of the rebel group’s officials, Mabior de Mabior and the spokesperson in Kenya, James Oryem, told The EastAfrican that the detention will negatively impact the talks because Dr Machar is not free to mingle with the delegates.
The
conveners of the talks, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
(Igad) and the Troika — UK, US and Norway — have also been accused of
siding with President Kiir and tacitly backing Dr Machar’s
immobilisation.
“The SPLM-IO maintains the position
that as long as President Kiir, who is a party to the conflict, is also
mediator in the Igad process, the peace process lacks credibility. This
state of affairs has resulted in the illegal detention of our chairman
and commander-in-chief in South Africa at the behest of Igad, and
furthered the isolation of the SPLM-In Opposition leadership in the
region,” said De Mabior.
House arrest
Dr Machar has been under house arrest in Pretoria since December
2016 when the Juba government convinced Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and
other partners to isolate him after he fled in July when fresh clashes
broke out in the capital. They were supported by former US Secretary of
State John Kerry.
New players in the Igad
revitalisation programme such as Dr Lam Akol, Gen Thomas Cirillo and Col
Joseph Bakosoro, have also called for Dr Machar’s release for the sake
of inclusivity, saying that some of their supporters are urging them to
boycott the talks should the opposition leader remain in captivity.
However,
deputy military spokesperson Col Gabriel Lam said that Dr Machar
supports the peace efforts and is likely to delegate the leadership to
others that are empowered to make decisions.
“Dr Machar
is ready to bring peace to South Sudan. The question is whether Igad is
ready to be neutral for the sake of peace or if it will continue to
sideline Dr Machar in favour of Salva Kiir and first vice-president
Taban Deng Gai,” said Col Lam.
While meeting the new
African National Congress chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa, President Kiir said
Dr Machar is only interested in power and not re-unification of the
three South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement factions, which could
help end the war.
Ceasefire
The
ANC, together with Tanzania’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi, have been pushing
for the reunification of the SPLM splinter groups as the first step to
ending the bloodletting because the civil strife emerged from
disagreements over the leadership structure in the South Sudan ruling
party.
Samuel Atabi, a South Sudan political
commentator says Igad sought to scuttle the opposition leadership when
they decided to put the leader of the SPLA-IO under house arrest far
away from the theatre of battle.
In the meantime, both
the government and the rebels continue to spar over the Cessation of
Hostilities Agreement signed on December 21, with the rebels accusing
Igad of ignoring their reports of violations by the government.
De
Mabior accused Ismail Wais, the Igad special envoy to South Sudan, of
allowing Mr Deng to move with troops and battle tanks to Jonglei, yet
the agreement expressly disallows movement of troops from their
positions.
Mr Wais dismissed the allegation as “misleading” and “irresponsible”.
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