South Sudan denies surrendering sovereignty by accepting foreign troops
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August 7, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government under the leadership
of President Salva Kiir has denied surrendering the country’s
sovereignty to a foreign force after accepting their deployment in
Juba despite President Kiir’s earlier repeated vows that not even a
“single” additional foreign soldier will be allowed to enter South
Sudan.
JPEG - 18.5 kb
S. Sudan cabinet minister Martin Elia Lomoro (Photo KT Press)
This came after the heads of state and government of the East African
regional bloc, IGAD, which mediated the August 2015 peace agreement
signed between President Kiir and opposition leader, Riek Machar,
released a communiqué on Friday after their summit in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, resolving to deploy unspecified number of foreign troops to
Juba to take charge of its security and protection of leaders and
civilians at risk.
Point number 11 of the IGAD communiqué reads: “Calls upon the UN
Security Council to urgently extend the mission of UNMISS with a
revised mandate including the deployment of the Regional Protection
Force with distinct responsibilities under the direct command of a
commander who will report to the overall UNMISS Force Commander, to be
based in Juba.”
But the government in their new explanation to their reversed position
by accepting foreign troops deployment in Juba however said the
troops’ deployment will not amount to surrendering the sovereignty of
the country.
South Sudanese cabinet affairs minister, Martin Elia Lomoru, told
Sudan Tribune on Sunday that the decision of the government to accept
deployment of additional foreign troops to the country does not
undermine the national sovereignty of the country because the
government will participate in future discussions before actual
deployment takes place.
“The position of the government was clear and remained clear until it
was understood by the region. The government categorically rejected
the deployment of intervention force and this was explained at the
summit. So what has been accepted in principle is simply the
deployment of protection force to protect Internally Displaced
Persons, NGOs and members of Joint Monitoring and Evaluation
Commission (JMEC),” Lomuro explained.
“There is no intervention force. The Mandate, funding and size shall
be negotiated. This was outcome of the summit and the communique is
already for members of the public to access. It is already in the
media. So there is no question of surrendering the national
sovereignty here,” he said.
The cabinet minister who leads political parties allied to the
government also said the replacement of Riek Machar with Taban Deng
Gai was solely an internal affairs of the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO).
“There were people [who] were trying to associate the government to
changes within IO, which was not true. The IO leadership convened
their meeting at which they made their own decision to replace Riek
Machar because he was not anywhere in Juba and was not communicating
with anyone. He was [not] communicating with either president or even
the IO leadership. This created a vacuum that affected implementation
schedules of the agreement. And by the way, the agreement was not
signed between individuals and by parties, so the absence of one
person cannot hold the implementation,” he claimed.
However, officials of the SPLM-IO loyal to Machar said the action was
violating article 6.5 of the peace agreement and that the process to
nominate Gai, who was already dismissed from the party a day before
convening the nomination meeting, did not qualify as there was no
quorum for either political bureau or the national liberation council
that discussed the alleged internal change.
They said it was a conspiracy cooked by both President Kiir and Gai to
use Machar’s temporary absence to remove him, adding that the two men
have a mutual understanding to scrap key provisions in the agreement
including security arrangements, with the aim to dismantle the whole
peace agreement and return the country to war.
Also, IGAD in their communiqué point number 15 said they “noted” the
government position that the leadership change was an internal
business of the SPLM-IO, but called on the new first vice president,
Gai, to step down so that Machar is reinstated to his position.
“In this respect, [IGAD] welcomes the gesture of H.E. General Taban
Deng Gai to step down with a view of returning to the status quo ante
in line with the ARCSS for the sake of peace and stability in the
Republic of South Sudan.”
Machar’s spokesperson earlier said their leader will return to Juba
after Gai steps down and the third party force is deployed in Juba.
(ST)
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8 August 09:01, by Eastern
Yes sir, you have not "surrendered your sovereignty" but please
eat your humble pie quietly. The more public statements you make, the
more stupid you appear!
repondre message
8 August 09:48, by Kerem
South Sudanese are very stupid. Foreign troops cannot maintain
peace in the country for they won’t be there forever. They very
limited and specified time. In stead let avoid following the
politicians and create our own lasting peace. This protection force
shall not staff the Equatorians from killing the Dinka innocent
travelers on roads in their region neither shall in stop our current
difference
repondre message
8 August 15:17, by Akook
Hahahaha... my stomach! South Sudanese including myself are
very intelligent people. Our leaders are like stupid like cartoons.
Dr Martin Elia you made my day sir! By assuming to talk
telling us what you did not know or have details to discuss about!
You claim our sovereignty won’t be affected, Oh really sir?
You said there will be discussions about size, mandate and duration.
repondre message
8 August 15:23, by Akook
Well, if you don’t know what the force is coming to do
(mandate) or its numbers or even duration. How sure do you claim our
sovereignty is not in question? If you don’t anything yet of those
important details, shut the hell up minister. You are like me in the
shadow and have nothing to tell me about it. Let me mourn our
sovereignty silently. Kiir and Malong behave like mad dogs and got us
into shi
repondre message
8 August 17:31, by dinkdong
South Sudan, what a country?!
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