South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar has failed to arrive on time at scheduled peace talks for a meeting with his political rival President Salva Kiir because he had no “private plane” to carry him to the venue, according to a representative of his movement.
Owing to his delayed departure from Nairobi to Addis Ababa, Riek also will not be able to hold talks with Salva Kiir tonight because he has “other meetings,” SPLM-IO negotiator Dhieu Mathok told Radio Tamazuj.
“Dr Riek was not present in Addis Ababa today, he is in Nairobi and the SPLM [in Opposition] has no means to hire a private plane for him like presidents of other countries,” said Dhieu.
“He’s taking a plane like any other ordinary citizen. So the reason of delay is the lack of a booking for the flight that was supposed to be this morning. This is why his flight was delayed and now he is on the plane on his way to Addis,” he said, speaking at about 4:00 p.m.
Dhieu Mathok also said that “I am sure that the meeting is not going to happen this evening because Dr. Machar has some other meetings with some politicians and with the leaders of the envoys of Norway and China and some other envoys.”
For his part, the spokesman of Salva Kiir’s delegation Michael Makuei told Radio Tamazuj today that the president has arrived from Juba to Addis Ababa and was ready for talks this morning starting at 9:00 a.m. but the negotiations did not go forward because of Machar’s absence.
Makuei explained, “The agenda was supposed to be given to the Riek and Salva this morning,” noting that agenda items included power-sharing and structure of the transitional government.