Human Rights Watch has criticized a proposal by President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar to drop a planned war crimes tribunal.

In August, both leaders signed a peace deal to end the country’s civil war. The agreement included a hybrid court to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. On Tuesday, Kiir and Machar penned an op-ed in the New York Times requesting that the court be cancelled. Both leaders have been accused of war crimes.

“Their proposal to scrap trials is a self-serving attempt to evade justice at the expense of victims of atrocities, which can only be expected to fuel further abuses” said Elise Keppler, international justice associate director at Human Rights Watch. “The August 2015 peace agreement endows the African Union (AU), not these leaders, with the responsibility to set up an African-South Sudanese hybrid court to try perpetrators of the worst crimes,”

Under the peace agreement, the African Union Commission will investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for violating international law committed from December 15th to the end of the transitional period. The tribunal will be made up of South Sudanese and African judges.

In their op-ed, Kiir and Machar requested that the United States and Britain drop their support for a tribunal.

“Disciplinary justice — even if delivered under international law — would destabilize efforts to unite our nation by keeping alive anger and hatred among the people of South Sudan,” the leaders wrote.

A spokesperson for the State Department said the United States government supports the full implementation of the peace agreement.

“The AU should set aside the self-interested objections of men implicated in grave crimes and instead assist the victims by moving forward with justice,” Keppler said.

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Kiir and Machar vs Hybrid Court (7 Jun.)