South Sudan has questioned the basis on which the SPLM ‘former detainees’ have continued to participate in the peace talks in Addis Ababa as a separate faction after joining the ruling SPLM faction in early June, ending more than one year living in exile in neigbouring Kenya.
“There is ambiguity with the participation of the former detainees in the talks. Unless they want to tell the people that they were divided. Some representatives of former detainees appeared at the opening of the talks and wanted to present themselves as separate group from the government,” deputy foreign affairs and international cooperation minister Bashir Gbandi said on Sunday.
Government information minister Michael Makuei said in a statement carried by the state owned South Sudan television on Friday the government delegation no longer consider the former detainees as a separate negotiating group in the talks because they have been reincorporated into the government.
“It is rather strange that they have now come to claim that they are not part and parcel of the government, but they continue to stand as an entity,” Makuei said.
“In the government position, we have deleted the list of the FDs (former detainees) from those who will be participating in the (power-sharing) ratios. Not only that, but we don’t even recognize their presence at the peace talks as an entity,” he said.