Yiep Joseph
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. A brewing standoff could be lingering over the Rome peace talks that the government and the holdout groups should have resumed last month, going by the previous resolution.
The non-signatory South Sudan Opposition Groups (NSSSOG), which engages the government of South Sudan in the peace talks, blamed the Juba administration for dragging its feet, although the latter maintains that its goodwill is unquestionable.
In an interview with The City Review yesterday, Garang Malual, spokesperson of the South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A), alleged that the South Sudan government had failed to release a delegation to meet them for the resumption of the talks.
“We were to go back in May, but the government chose not to come back because of the round table. Till now, the government is saying they are not ready for the round table,” Garang said.
He added that the government continues to show little effort to speed up the Rome talks to achieve everlasting peace in the country.
But according to Malual, the government holds on to its ground that if there will be talks with the SSSOG, then it must be an edifice of Rome initiatives.
He claimed that the government told the opposition group to send their members to be part of the security mechanism, adding: “We stopped because they wanted some of us to be in the security mechanism in Juba.”
He added that Rome mediators are expecting the opposition group to go to Rome without the representatives of the government to deliberate more as government positions remain constant.
“The mediators are expecting us to go to Rome and discuss more, but the position of the government is that they do not want a round table,” he said.
But while addressing journalists after cabinet sitting on Friday, Michael Makuei, Minister of Communications, Information Technology, and Postal Services, said that the delegation that went for the Rome peace talks was present before Cabinet and was told to go ahead with engaging the opposition in order to have peace.
“The delegation that went from here (South Sudan) was appreciated for their role and given the go-ahead to continue negotiating with the non-signatories,” Makuei said.
He said the head of the delegation to the Rome peace talks, Dr. Barnaba Marial, who is the minister for presidential affairs, briefed the cabinet on the progress of the Rome peace talks.
“We listen to another report from Dr. Marial Benjamin on the last peace talks in Rome with the non-signatory groups,” he said.
He added that the parties to the Rome peace did not agree on the way forwards for the negotiation.
“Non-signatories were saying meetings could be discussed on the roundtable, and the government was saying let us stop where we stopped last time and continue from there to the next phase, so the parties could not agree,” expressed
According to Makuei, Marial and the holdout parties were given time to consult and go back for the talks.
“The body moderating on this (the Rome talks) decided, after consultation with the parties, to call off the meeting until further notice, when the parties will be in a position to agree with the agenda, after which they will continue with peace talks,” he said.
In March, the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome, Italy, adjourned the peace talks between the government and the South Sudan Non-Signatories Opposition Groups after the parties differed over the meeting agenda; however, in May, no progress was made.
Under the auspices of the Community of Sant Egidio in Rome, the government of South Sudan, the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA), the SPLM/A-IO, and the NDM have signed a peace declaration in which they recommit to the Secession of Hostilities Agreement of December 2017 to avoid confrontation between the signatory and non-signatory parties to the South Sudan peace agreement. The Rome peace talks were witnessed by IGAD.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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