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Roundup: South Sudan peace monitors call for flexibility to implement deal

Xinhua, April 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Sudan peace deal monitors have called on South Sudanese parties to urgently demonstrate flexibility and spirit of compromise to implement the August 2015 peace deal by forming the unity government.

The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) Chairman Festus Mogae warned in a statement received in Juba on Wednesday that the peace deal aimed at ending the more than two years of civil war in the world's youngest nation is at risk.

"The agreement is at risk. Having come so close to the formation of the transitional government of National Unity, all parties must ensure that the spirit of reconciliation, compromise and dialogue embodied by the agreement should be protected," Mogae said.

Mogae whose JMEC brokered the peace deal expressed "his deep disappointment "that the rebel leader failed to travel to Juba on the chartered aircraft provided by international partners on Monday and Tuesday.

The former vice-president was expected to arrive in Juba to take up the post of vice-president in a new unity government on Monday but delayed it to Tuesday.

His officials later told journalists on Tuesday that Machar's long-awaited return to Juba has been cancelled due to logistical reasons since President Salva Kiir had earlier refused to clear airspace for his chief of general staff Simon Gatwech Dual's plane to fly in.

Sources said that Machar's arrival in Juba has been delayed because of a disagreement over the number of opposition troops travelling with Machar and his chief of staff, Dual, who is under U.S. and UN sanctions.

The opposition has demanded that Dual's return to Juba along with the return of Machar whose subsequent swearing-in as vice president are seen as key steps towards implementation of the August 2015 peace deal.

The South Sudan government on Wednesday responded to Machar with Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Bashir Gbandi telling journalists in Juba that "we have accepted as a government that Machar should come with the 195 forces accompanying him and his chief of staff."

In his statement, Mogae who is the former Botswana president called on the government of South Sudan to ensure its full cooperation in ensuring the return arrangements for the First VP-designate are amicably agreed.

Mogae expressed his hope that Machar's flight could be rescheduled within days, without further conditions, to ensure the timely formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity.

Machar's advance team and 1,370 bodyguards including 22 Police high command have arrived in Juba with their light rifles despite continued clashes between the two rival troops in Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions.

Fighting erupted in the world's youngest oil-rich nation two years after it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup, an allegation the rebel leader has denied.

Since then tens of thousands of people have lost their lives and over two million people fled their homes, destroying properties and livelihood. Endit