The head of the SPLM/A-IO breakaway Kitgwang faction has reiterated a call demanding the group’s delegation in Juba to return to Khartoum, saying the agreement they signed with the government in Juba was not being implemented.
General Simon Gatwich Dual told Radio Tamazuj Tuesday that he wanted the SPLM/A-IO Kitgwang faction delegation comprised of 30 people who have spent five months in Juba to return to Khartoum because the mediator (Sudan) had failed to push for the implementation of the security arrangements in the accord.
The SPLM/A-IO breakaway group signed the Khartoum Peace Agreement with the Juba government in January of this year. Among other clauses, the agreement stipulated that the outfit’s soldiers would be integrated into the national army, SSPDF, within three months which have since elapsed.
Last week, the delegations deputy secretary-general for administrative affairs, Sebit Kong Kun, told this publication that since they arrived in Juba five months ago, they have not met any government official or any of the parties that they signed the Khartoum Peace Agreement with.
Gen. Gatwich said that his delegation in Juba told him that they had not held any meeting with any of President Salva Kiir’s government officials.
“We want the government of Sudan, because it is the party responsible for the peace agreement between the Kitgwang group and the government in Juba, to return the delegation from Juba to Khartoum because the peace implementation process has failed,” Gen. Gatwich charged. “The government in Juba wants to use the strategy that it implemented against the First Vice President Riek Machar, by detaining him in the capital, Juba, away from his forces.”
“We want our delegation to return to Khartoum in order to hold consultations or to conduct new negotiations with the government in Juba,” he added.
The Kitgwang faction boss said his group wants stability in South Sudan.
The peace agreement specified a ceasefire, granted amnesty to the leaders of the Kitgwang faction, and stipulated the integration of the group’s forces into the SSPDF among others.
Generals Simon Gatwich and Johnson Olony defected from the SPLM/A-IO led by First Vice President Riek Machar last year after protesting the failure of the peace partners to implement the security arrangements enshrined in the revitalized peace agreement.