Uhuru Kenyatta to table results of South Sudan peace talks Jul. 04 Politics, Uncategorized no comments
BY: FRED OLUOCH, The East African, JUL/04/2015, SSN; IN SUMMARY: *President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Dr Riek Machar narrowed down their differences to power sharing, federalism, compensation for the war victims and the integration of the army. *The two parties agreed that Dr Machar be reinstated as the first deputy chairman of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) according to the recommendation of the Arusha Accord, but the issue of power sharing remains tricky. As the rapporteur of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development on South Sudan, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta is now expected to table the results of discussions with the leaders of the two warring parties on four outstanding issues that emerged from the Nairobi consultations last week. After a two-day meeting in Nairobi on June 27 and 28, President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Dr Riek Machar narrowed down their differences to power sharing, federalism, compensation for the war victims and the integration of the army. President Kenyatta asked the two parties to work out how the four issues will be handled. By Friday, the government had submitted their position while Dr Machar’s side said it was still fine-tuning the responses at Nairobi’s Safari Park hotel. According to the new initiative by Kenya and Uganda to fast-track the peace process through the Arusha Accord, the Igad mediators will now need to find a middle ground on the four issues. The two parties agreed that Dr Machar be reinstated as the first deputy chairman of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) according to the recommendation of the Arusha Accord, but the issue of power sharing remains tricky. READ: New deal could reinstate Machar to VP’s position According to South Sudan deputy ambassador to Kenya, James Morgan, the government has decided that since President Kiir has reinstated SPLM officials who were sacked, the issue of power sharing will be agreed within the party structures. “The party is now one and you cannot share power within it, but only distribute positions,” said Mr Morgan. “Our position is that SPLM should now invite other political parties to form a government of national unity.” But the rebels, through the SPLM-IO representative in Kenya Adel Sandrai said that while they have accepted the reinstatement of Dr Machar to the party, the conflict has gone beyond the party and it is now a national crisis, noting that the Arusha Accord is meant to facilitate the final peace agreement. “We need power-sharing as a guarantee that reforms will be undertaken and for us to have a voice on the way reforms should be implemented,” said Mr Sandrai. On federalism, the government argues that it cannot be left to only SPLM to decide on a new system of government because it is a national issue that must be discussed within the larger constitutional reforms. It must be taken to parliament and then the people decide through referendum, it notes. The rebels have submitted that federalism should be included in the final agreement because the current systems in South Sudan were handed down via the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement without consulting the people. Dr Machar’s group further maintains that federalism has been a demand for South Sudanese since 1947 and that the recent gathering of all 64 ethnic groups in March also recommended federalism as a way of avoiding future conflicts. On the issue of the army, Mr Morgan said the government had agreed that all SPLA fighters who defected with Dr Machar be reinstated to the positions they held before the war. This excludes the militias who were not in the army. But the other side argues that the SPLA comprises of militias because it has never been transformed into a conventional army. Thus, the number of the soldiers the country needs should be decided upon, taking into account the ethnic diversity. The issue on the compensation of the victims is likely to prove tricky given that civilians have been displaced, killed or lost property in the last 19 months. Mr Morgan said that the two sides had agreed to set aside $100 million in the budget every year for those who were displaced and lost property in Greater Upper Nile— the amphitheatre the conflict. The government has also proposed to increase the statutory two per cent oil that the government cedes to Upper Nile to five per cent to help in the reconstruction. The rebels, however, want the compensation to include other areas like Western Equatoria and northern Bahr-el-Ghazal. 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