A group of defectors from Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) have supported the South Sudanese government’s decision to suspend participation in the peace talks with the SPLM-IO faction still loyal to Riek Machar, saying the latter has lost legitimacy and that they should be included instead in the negotiations.
Former minister of youth, culture and sport, Gabriel Changson Chang, said on Saturday that he and his group have backed the breakaway faction of generals, and appealed to IGAD to suspend the peace talks in order to give them time to develop their own peace proposal.
“It is in the interest of the people of South Sudan to end this conflict urgently and this is the basis upon which we have called for the suspension of the talks between the government and the group of Riek Machar. He does not represent any group anymore. The entire leadership has dismissed him. He has been denounced and disowned from the leadership of the movement and anybody who wants to negotiate with him should do that on individual basis but not as the leader of any group,” said Changson.
The generals and his group, he said, were forced by what he claimed were “unbearable circumstances” to remove Machar from the leadership after several failed attempts to resolve the differences through internal channels and dialogue.
“There was nothing which was not done to correct the situation but Riek decided to refuse to listen. He made himself everything and became unquestionable. The commanders wrote to him and IGAD expressing frustrations. They held discussions among themselves and shared their views with low ranking officers and soldiers but when no one was ready to listen to them and it became unbearable, they decided to remove from the leadership and we supported them,” Changson explained.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, the rebel official said he was preparing to travel from Nairobi to Addis Ababa where he hopes to present their proposal on the talks.
“I will be going to Addis to present our proposal on the current talks. Our view is that these talks should be postponed until when we have prepared ourselves to participate as the legitimate representatives of the movement,” he said. I will be going today or tomorrow to Addis,” he revealed.
Separately, some critics of this government have claimed that the split within the rebel movement was engineered by security officials through bribery, with a view to weakening the position of the rebels at the talks and delaying the peace process. Major-General Peter Gadet and General Gathoth Gatkuoth announced on Tuesday this week that they have lost confidence in Riek Machar and his leadership.