The secretary-general of the Community of Sant'Egidio, Paolo Impagliazzo, has said that the Rome initiative does not intend to reopen the South Sudan peace agreement (R-ARCSS) to renegotiation but that changes can be adopted if all parties to the treaty are in agreement.
In an email to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, Paolo Impagliazzo said the Rome initiative is engaging non-signatories to the deal because they have to be involved in the political discourse in the country.
“The Rome initiative is not aimed to reopen the R-ARCSS. Amendments to the R-ARCSS are possible through a particular process in which all the parties to the Agreements accept to change it,” Impagliazzo said. “The Rome initiative engages the non-signatories that are not part of the R-ARCSS. The non-signatories can and should contribute to the political debate.”
He said concerted efforts from all stakeholders are required to build a lasting and sustainable peace in South Sudan.
Asked when the Sant’Egidio mediated talks will resume, Impagliazzo said, “The next meeting between the SSOMA parties, SSUF/A of Paul Malong and Real SPLM of Pagan Amun and the government will be most probably in May in Rome. It is essential to have everyone on board to discuss the root causes of the conflict including the governance, the security sector, insecurity, national healing, etc.”
He said Sant’Egidio already facilitated different sessions of political discussion between SSOMA led by Gen. Thomas Cirillo and the government, “in the next meeting, hopefully, in April in Rome, the parties will discuss the remaining details of the “Declaration of Principles”, which will establish a shared political framework for any further development.”
“The Rome initiative led by Sant’Egidio is aimed to facilitate the political dialogue between the non-signatories to the R-ARCSS and the TGoNU: it is complementary to the IGAD led process. Our efforts are to reduce the violence and to make the peace process inclusive of the holdout groups,” he concluded.