The government of Uganda had last month announced that a peace meeting between Kiir and Machar would be convened in Uganda to discuss stalemate in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement including the disagreements on when to conduct elections.
Kiir has said that he will organize the general elections provided for in the revitalized peace agreement at the end of the transitional period in 2023 and has urged the international community to support the process which he said will help end the conflict in the world’s youngest country.
But First Vice President Machar and his group, the SPLM-IO, has been reluctant about the call saying no elections should be held until when the unified forces provided for in the revitalized peace agreement, which he signed with President Kiir in 2018, are graduated.
He has also been joined by a group of political parties in the call for the speedy implementation of the peace agreement before conduct of elections because “if the necessary arrangements are not made, the peace agreement may collapse and South Sudan may return to the deadly conflict.”
On February 27, a senior presidency official said President Salva does not want Machar to leave the country and has asked Uganda to only let Machar chose a delegation to represent him at the important meeting prompting Ugandan authorities to postpone the meeting which was otherwise supposed to take place this February.
“The meeting was supposed to take place this January, but the president has asked Ugandan authorities that Machar should be allowed personally to travel to Uganda given the policy of the government to keep Machar in the country until when the transitional period ended with the conduct of elections,” the official said.
Speaking to Sudans Post this morning, a senior opposition official allied to Machar said they have been informed by a Ugandan official that the meeting has been postponed until further notice.
“Last week, we received an invitation from the government of Uganda to a peace retreat to discuss the stalled implementation of the revitalized peace agreement, but President Kiir seems to be not happy with the fact that the Chairman and Commander in Chief of the SPLM/SPAL (IO) will attend that meeting,” the official said.
“We have now received an information coming from Uganda that the meeting has been called off, upon the request of President Salva and this is, I think, is because he is not happy of the first vice president to leave the country,” the official, who requested not to be named, said.
He further said the group “has information that the President has told the Ugandan counterpart, President Museveni that he does not want Machar to participate in the meeting which is very important in the implementation process of the revitalized peace agreement and this shows that he is not serious in the implementation of the peace agreement.”