South Sudan’s government said Tuesday that peace talks in Addis Ababa are “adjourned indefinitely”  because rebels are demanding the exclusion of non-government stakeholders from negotiations.

Speaking to reporters at Juba airport upon his arrival from Addis Ababa, chief government negotiator Nhial Deng Nhial said that the opposition is going back on the 9 June peace agreement by demanding that civil society organizations, religious groups, and political parties not participate in direct talks between the government and rebels.

“The agreement of the 9 [of June]…says that all stakeholders should participate in the negotiations,” he said.  “In their new proposal they want the direct negotiations to be confined to the government and themselves meanwhile the other stakeholders their role will be relegated to that of consultation with the parties.”

Nhial said the IGAD mediation teams rejected the rebel demand to exclude stakeholders.  IGAD has insisted on including stakeholders to ensure talks are not only between the warring parties.

“It looks like this issue will be rather complicated and it might require time and it’s perhaps why the special envoys have decided that they will not set any specific date for the resumption for the talks,” Nhial said.

South Sudan information minister Michael Makuei said the government will not negotiate without the stakeholders present.

“The rebels changed their minds and are now demanding that we negotiate the two of us without the other stakeholders,” he said.  “This situation we did not accept.”

Since the end of last week, the SPLM-In Opposition has boycotted negotiations because of what they say was a pro-government bias in the selection of the stakeholders.  They called for a fresh process to select stakeholders from rebel-held territories.  On Monday, IGAD postponed talks until at least July 1.

Nhial rejected the rebels' claim that the current group of stakeholders represents the government.

“[The rebels] say that stakeholders that represent them were not at the venue,” he said.  “We take the view that civil society organizations, political parties, faith-based groups are independent of the government and are independent of the rebel side…these groups represent the whole of South Sudan.”

Photo: Chief government negotiator Nhial Deng Nhial speaks to reporters at Juba Airport upon arrival from Addis Ababa 25 June 2014. Credit: Radio Tamazuj.