Kiir and Machar agree to create political space, ensure freedom of the press

December 17, 2019 Newsbeat, South Sudan, Sudan

President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar during a face-to-face meeting at the State House in Juba, on December 17th, 2019 (Photo: Supplied)

Dec 17th, 2019 (SSNN)-South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and the main opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar, have agreed, among other outstanding matters, to create a free political environment that would allow the dissemination of the R-ARCSS, as well as freedom of the press in various parts of the country.

South Sudan’s leaders on Tuesday, in the presence of Sudan’s senior official, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the first Deputy Chairman of the Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council (STSC) – held a Consultative Meeting and they agreed on a number of issues, including the formation of the unity government and security arrangements.

“The meeting discussed the Security Arrangements, funding of the activities of the implementation of the outstanding critical tasks enshrined in the Revitalized Agreement, Number of States and their Boundaries, engaging of the Holdout or Non-Signatories Group to the R-ARCSS, and creating Political Space,” said the SPLM-IO’s official, Deputy Chairman, SPLM/SPLA (IO) National Committee for Information and Public Relation.

During the meeting, the two principles agreed on the following agendas:

Dispel the rumors of returning to war;
Moving forward on the implementation of activities of the Security arrangements. Also to expedite the delivery of the necessary support to various cantonment sites and barracks and the transportation of the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF), National Security, National Police, and other Organized Forces to the Training Centers;
Establishing a transparent and accountable Peace Support Fund for the implementation of the activities of the Pre-Transitional and the Transitional Period;
Seized to wait for the outcome of the IGAD Initiative aimed to resolve the issue of the Number of the States and their Boundaries, facilitated by H.E. David Mabuza, Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa;
Engaging the non-signatories to the R-ARCSS in order to achieve comprehensive and lasting peace in South Sudan;

6.Creating political space to ensure disseminating the Peace Agreement, freedom of movement, expression, speech, assembly and media; and;

The formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) depends on the progress of the implementation of the outstanding critical issues in the context of the 100 days of the Pre-Transitional Period.

In a statement, the leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-IO affirms its commitment to implementing the R-ARCSS in good faith.

“The SPLM/SPLA (IO) reiterates its full commitment to the implementation of R-ARCSS in letter and spirit, as the sole way to attain peace in South Sudan.”