South Sudanese rebel leader meets Tanzanian president over SPLM
reunification process
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June 15, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan’s former vice president,
Riek Machar, turned leader of the armed opposition faction of the
ruling Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), has met the
president of the United Republic of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, over the
ongoing reunification process of three factions of the ruling party in
the young country.
JPEG - 31.3 kb
SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar meets Tanzanian president Jakaya
Kikwete, June 15, 2015, Johannesburg, South Africa (ST photo)
The two leaders met on Monday on the sidelines of the African Union
(AU) summit of heads of state and government in Johannesburg, South
Africa.
Rebel leader’s spokesman said the meeting centered on how best the
Arusha intraparty dialogue on reunification could be complementing the
Addis Ababa comprehensive peace process to end the civil war in South
Sudan.
“The two leaders discussed how best to approach the Arusha SPLM
intraparty dialogue as a complementary to the IGAD comprehensive peace
process,” Machar’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, told Sudan Tribune
when contacted on Monday.
He said the SPLM-IO leadership was committed to the intraparty
dialogue which was addressing the root causes of the current crisis in
the country in the context of the ruling party.
“You know the current national crisis started as a political crisis
within the SPLM party before it developed national. If the rival party
leaders can address those causes and accept SPLM transformation,
reforms and leadership succession, I think they can also accept
similar reforms on governance at the IGAD process,” he said.
Dak stressed that the Arusha reunification process would address
democracy within the disintegrated ruling party including structural,
organizational and leadership issues which caused the crisis.
He however said the process was not a substitute to the IGAD peace
process and should not be misinterpreted to mean “mere reinstatement”
of SPLM leaders previously dismissed “unconstitutionally” by president
Salva Kiir following the crisis.
The rebel leader’s spokesman commended the Arusha roadmap agreement
signed in January this year, describing it as a positive guiding
document in resolving outstanding issues within the party.
“Our leadership believes that addressing the root causes of the
conflict through the intraparty dialogue would positively reflect on
the IGAD peace process,” he said.
But, he added, an intraparty agreement would not be an end in itself,
ruling out what he said were misinterpretations by people who thought
the rebel leadership would return to Juba if an agreement was struck
by the SPLM factions.
Full implementation of a reunification agreement, he further stressed,
was dependent on a final peace agreement in Addis Ababa that will
resolve on all outstanding issues such as on governance and security
arrangements and reforms outside the party’s jurisdiction.
President Kikwete’s ruling party of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has
since last year been mediating between the SPLM in government
(SPLM-IG) led by president Salva Kiir, SPLM-IO led by former vice
president, Riek Machar and former detainees (FDs) led by former
party’s secretary general, Pagan Amum in trying to reunify their ranks
and file.
Observers say the process is expected to be complementing to the IGAD
peace process to end the 18-month long civil war in the country.
(ST)
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