JUBA – A senior member of the main armed opposition group has said in a statement extended to Sudans Post that South Sudan’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny is predictable, a day after President Salva Kiir framed him as untrustworthy person who is unpredictable.
In an interview with Kenyan journalist Jeff Koinange aired on Wednesday night, President Kiir berated Machar for being ‘unpredictable’, always impatience, not sincere and someone who is behind the suffering of the people of South Sudan for starting the many wars South Sudan has witnessed.
“We are good…..we talk [but] we are not that so close like we used to be, simply because he is unpredictable. But these days, the last few days, he has been good,” the South Sudanese president said of his peace partner.
Kiir blamed Machar for intransigence and lack of will to apologize because, according to Kiir, he started the civil war.
“I have apologized many times. In front of Riek Machar, I apologize. He never apologized. I apologized not because I have done anything wrong. But the person who started the fighting has been keeping quit,” Kiir said.
In a statement extended to Sudans Post this morning, senior SPLM-IO official Dut Majokdit responded to President Kiir’s statements against Machar and appealed to the president to avoid utterances that may jeopardize the implementation of the revitalized peace deal.
“I think it’s time for the leaders to build trust and confidence in making peace in the best interest of the people of South Sudan as we celebrate 10th independence anniversary on 9th July 2021. We have to think about our people who have been suffering for the last [seven] years since of war,” Dut who is a close ally to Machar and a member of the SPLM-IO National Liberation Council said.
He said there are many grounds for Kiir to trust Machar one of which is the return of the first vice president to Juba without the completion of the pre-transitional and security arrangements in place saying the main armed opposition leader is predictable.
“The SPLM-IO under His Excellency Dr. Riek Machar Teny has compromised the security arrangements to come to Juba for the formation of the R-TGONU [Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity] on February 22nd 2020 and that was for the sack of peace and stability in South Sudan,” he said.
“I believe His Excellency Dr. Riek Machar Teny is predictable and that is why he accepted to participate in the implementation of the peace agreement from inside the country despite the completion of the security arrangements,” he added.
Arms embargo
Majongdit went on to comment on President Salva Kiir’s claims that the unified necessary forces cannot be graduated because they don’t have guns, in contrary to reports by several international and regional organizations that the country has more weapons to graduate the peace forces.
Kiir said the United Nations sanctions and arms embargo have contributed directly in the ongoing economic crisis in the world’s youngest country, urging regional and international powers to remove the sanctions so that the peace agreement is implemented on time.
“The delays on the formation of the unified command prior to the graduation of the unified forces has nothing to do with the arms embargo on South Sudan but it’s due to the lack of political will to implement the peace agreement by the former ITGONU,” Majongdit said.
He added that the parties to the revitalized peace agreement should have completed the allocation of independent commissions and institutions which have nothing to do with the arms embargo if the government means to implement the peace agreement.
