Uganda peace retreat should include all partners, Dr. Lam tells R-JMEC

JUBA – South Sudan’s prominent opposition leader Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin has urged the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) to include all the parties to the revitalized peace agreement in the peace retreat planned for next month in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

Last month, senior government and opposition officials told Sudans Post that President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda was organizing a peace retreat for President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his first deputy Dr. Riek Machar Teny to discuss the possibility of elections in 2023.

Officials close to the two men have also confirmed to Sudans Post that the meeting will generally discuss the implementation process of the revitalized peace agreement which has remained behind schedule over different factors such as the lack of political will among the parties.

No indications were made as to whether the meeting will including other signatories to the revitalized peace agreement including Dr. Lam who is the chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and the Secretary-General of South Sudan Opposition (SSOA) which is a signatory to the 2018 peace agreement.

In a letter addressed to Charles T. Gittuai, the Interim Chairperson of the R-JMEC, Dr. Lam said they however heard of the ongoing plans for a meeting in Ugandan on social media and urged the peace monitoring body’s leader to include all parties to the revitalized peace agreement in the meeting.

“In the closing months of last year, there were media reports that a meeting was being planned in Uganda for the two Chairmen of the SPLM-IG and SPLM/A-10 who double as the President and First Vice President, respectively,” Dr. Lam wrote in the letter dated February 16 and obtained by Sudans Post.

“As reported, the purpose of the meeting was to consider the challenges facing the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS). Now, these reports are becoming persistent and this prompted us to write to your Excellency to state our position on the matter,” he added.

“As your Excellency is aware, the political Parties to R-ARCSS are five: ITGONU, SPLM/A-IO, SSOA, SPLM-FDs and OPP. These are the parties that signed the agreement and that are now engaged in its implementation. It is the same parties that discussed and adopted the extensions of the Pre-Transitional Period in May and November 2019.

“They are also the Parties referred to in Article 8.4 of R-ARCSS in relation to its possible amendment. Therefore, any evaluation of the status of implementation of R-ARCSS must involve all of them, more so because the fingers on stalled implementation process point to the top echelon of the government.

“If these reports are true, we would like to alert your Excellency that such a retreat must be inclusive of all Parties to R-ARCSS so that, as previously, all points of view are heard and taken into consideration.”