CEPO ‘concerned’ by intimidation of SPLM-IO officials in Warrap

JUBA, MARCH 16, 2023 (SUDANS POST) — South Sudan’s civil society watchdog, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), has expressed concerns over continued intimidation of opposition officials in Warrap state by state secure agencies.

On Wednesday, the main armed opposition SPLM-IO leadership in Warrap state issued a statement alleging arrest and harassment of its senior party members with instructions from newly appointed Warrap Governor Manhiem Bol.

In an email to SPLM-IO, CEPO said it is concerned by reports of intimidation and harassment of SPLM-IO officials.

“CEPO is seriously concerned about the latest negative developments around the genuine implementation of the R-ARCSS among which is the detention, harassment and intimidation of SPLM-IO members in Warrap,” the advocacy group said.

The civil society watchdog further expressed concerns over the “negligence towards the CTSAMVM national monitors in terms of timely and regular salaries payments in comparison to the international monitors and the closure of the national constitutional amendment committee (NCAC) among others.”

Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of CEPO, called on the presidency in Juba to convene a meeting in order to resolve these issues at the state levels to get the peace implementation going smoothly without problems.

“The presidency should have time to sort out some of these negative developments especially the ones on the violation of the spirit of the peace agreement. Any collapse of the peace agreement now is a totally grave mistake that our political elites will commit against the population,” Yakani said.

“The current political and gun class both should avoid be viewed as political and military elites that like to gain state power and authority for personal interest than the best interest of the nation. The political attitudes required for genuine implementation of the R-ARCSS are those political attitudes fully of trust, confidence, political maturity and political commitment.

“Otherwise, absence of the positive political attitudes the implementation of the peace agreement will be carry on with practices of dragging feet and embracing violations of some peace agreement provisions and engage much in. Conflicting interpretations of the peace agreement provisions,” the prominent activist stressed.

CEPO further called on regional and IGAD leaders “to be proactive on the pressuring the south Sudanese leaders for genuine delivery of the R-ARCSS than always being reactive on frictions among the principals to the peace agreement.”

“It is known that the primary responsibility for implementing the R-ARCSS is of our leaders but now our leaders have proven that they are unable to deliver the R-ARCSS in smooth manner,” Yakani charged.