A senior SPLM-IO member has warned the East African regional bloc IGAD against clamping down on South Sudan’s former first vice president and rebel leader Riek Machar.
This comes after Riek Machar was refused entry to Ethiopia and Sudan over the weekend, a move seen as part of a regional policy to exclude him from the political process in South Sudan after Taban Deng’s appointment as First Vice President.
Kuong Dak, former Member of South Sudan’s Parliament, told Radio Tamazuj yesterday that Riek Machar had intended to hold a meeting with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to discuss the peace process in South Sudan, but the Ethiopian authorities denied him entry into their country at the airport.
He noted that Machar decided to travel to the Sudanese capital Khartoum to discuss the issue of peace after being blocked from entering Addis Ababa, but he was also stopped at Khartoum International Airport by the Sudanese government.
Kuong explained that the recent shift in policy on relations between the East African region bloc IGAD and rebel leader Riek Machar came after statements made by the US Secretary of State John Kerry and Washington’s special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Donald Booth.
In last September, Booth said that the United States does not believe South Sudan’s former deputy president Riek Machar shouldn’t return to his former position in its government due to continuing instability in the country.
The opposition official pointed out that the regional move to exclude Machar from the political process will never bring about peace and stability in the world’s youngest nation.
“The region believes that the exclusion of Dr. Riek will stop the war, but it is a wrong analysis of the complex situation in South Sudan, the war will stop if there is a radical solution to the problem,”said Kuong.
He stressed that the ongoing conflict will not come to an end in South Sudan even if the region sends Machar into exile in Tanzania or South Africa.”The movement is not comprised of two or five people, we are a movement fighting against the government in South Sudan, we are not fighting in Kenya or in Sudan,”he said.
Kuong called the IGAD countries to address the root cause of South Sudan’s civil war instead of trying to exclude Riek Machar.