Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2015 21:24:29 +0100
S. Sudan rival leaders against exclusion from transitional executive
March 10, 2015 (JUBA) - South Sudanese rival leaders involved in the country’s 15 months-old conflict are against the move to have them excluded from the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU).
- South Sudanese president Salva Kiir (L) and former vice-president turned rebel leader Riek Machar (AFP)
A draft report of the African Union inquiry into crimes committed during the South Sudanese conflict recommended, among others, that president Salva Kiir and those who served his government prior to the July 2013 reshuffle be excluded from the TGNU executive.
Awan Guol Riak, South Sudan’s minister for the presidency, said the mandate of the five-member African Union commission of inquiry was to investigate crimes committed and make recommendations.
“We must also remember that president Salva Kiir was elected by the people and it is the people who have the ultimate choice and decision to make. Because we are a democratic country, we get power through votes of our people in elections,” said Riak.
“The people are the ones who give the president the legitimacy he still has today and will continue in this capacity”, he further stressed.
The minister also downplayed the significance of the United States-initiated sanctions against individual perceived to be blocking the ongoing peace process, stressing that punitive measures would not only undermine the process, but also the best approach.
Last week, the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for the formation of a sanctions committee geared towards South Sudan.
Meanwhile, the armed opposition leader, Riek Machar expressed his disappointment over failure to reach a peace deal during last week’s direct negotiations with president Kiir.
Machar, in an interview with the Washington-based VOA, said peace would only be achieved in reality if he and president Kiir are allowed and encouraged to participate in the TGNU.
He further explained that their removal would depend on the people of South Sudan and that nobody be allowed to decide on the young nation’s political future.