South Sudan’s national dialogue deputy co-chair Gabriel Yoal Dok has welcomed calls by regional circles to include rebel leader Riek Machar in the next meeting for the peace process, which is aimed at revitalizing the 2015 peace agreement.
“The issue of revitalization by IGAD countries is good, so we don’t have any problem with if it will bring about peace in our country,” the deputy co-chair said in an interview with Radio Tamazuj today.
Dok, a former opposition official allied to Machar, currently a leading member of the SPLM-IO faction allied to Taban Deng, said prominent opposition leaders are in talks with the national dialogue committee in order to join the process.
“We want Machar to be part of the grassroots dialogue, regional conferences and national conferences. If he [Machar] does want to come, he can dispatch his representatives to participate in the dialogue,” Dok said.
“We want Machar to part of all the processes, including the revitalization. What we want is peace to prevail in the country because we want people to speak out,” he added.
Dok, who is also a presidential adviser, stressed that the country’s national dialogue should not focus on issues pertaining to power and leadership, saying the dialogue process requires all South Sudanese to develop home-grown solutions to the ongoing conflict.
He revealed that the national dialogue steering committee wants to include all opposition leaders to ensure that South Sudan does remain engulfed in civil war.
The elderly politician noted that the national dialogue committee also plans to outline the key problems that need to be solved by all the people of South Sudan.
The IGAD High Level Independent Experts meeting in Ethiopia last month recommended that South Sudan's warring parties including Machar’s SPLM-IO faction should hold a consultative meeting in Addis Ababa in September to discuss the revitalization process.