"We will not accept any Draft text different from that of July 24th" Machar warns

By Samuel Ouga and Agencies

South Sudan’s former Vice president and leader of SPLM/SPLA group has issued a position regarding the 10th, August 2015 Kampala summit attended by four neighbouring states.

In a strongly worded statement Dr. Riek Machar has rejected the outcome of the Kampala meeting that was hosted by President Museveni on South Sudan

The Kampala summit was attended by IGAD Special Envoy and Chief Mediator, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Desalegn, President Uhuru Kenyatta, Museveni and Prof. Ibrahim Ghandour; the Foreign Affairs Minster of Sudan.

In a statement signed on August 14th, 2015, Dr. Riek Machar said that the outcome of the Kampala summit completely undermines the “IGAD PLUS Proposed Comprehensive Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan” that was presented to stakeholders in July 24th 2015 as the basis to negotiate on.

“We want to state clearly to IGAD-Plus mediation, the IGAD Region and the International Community that SPLM/SPLA will not accept any Draft text different from that of July 24th Agreement IGAD-Plus Proposed Compromise Draft Agreement as the basis for negotiation, as the SPLM/A leadership deliberated and debated this proposal in a conference from 3rd – 5th August 2015,” said Dr. Riek Machar in the statement that New Vision obtained.

Machar warned that the Kampala text will not bring peace and could escalate the war in South Sudan.
He also demanded that the Peace and Security Council (SPC) makes public the report of the AU Commission of Enquiry on the conflict in South Sudan. 

East African leaders met in Ethiopia on Sunday ahead of a deadline for South Sudan's warring leaders to strike a peace deal or risk international sanctions.

South Sudan's government and rebels are under intense diplomatic pressure to sign a deal by August 17 to end a 20-month civil war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, who had said he would not go to the talks and would send his deputy instead, after complaining it was not possible to strike an effective deal because rebel forces have split, flew to the Ethiopian Capital to Adis Ababa today to attend the talks.

The latest round of talks opened on August 6, mediated by the regional eight-nation bloc IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, as well as the United Nations, African Union, China and the "troika" of Britain, Norway and the United States.

Diplomats have warned any failure to sign a peace deal could trigger "serious consequences" for the rival leaders.

"We expect the parties to be represented in Addis Ababa by their principals, in order to negotiate in good faith and sign an agreement," IGAD and international mediators said in a statement.

Britain's minister for Africa, Grant Shapps, warned on Friday of possible "targeted sanctions" and an arms embargo if no deal is made.

The war has been marked by widespread atrocities on both sides.

South Sudan's civil war began in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that has split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

On Sunday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has sent troops into South Sudan to back Kiir, said in a statement that he had held closed-door meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta travelled on Sunday morning to join them, Kenya's government said.

The war has been characterised by ethnic massacres and rape. Recent attacks have included castration, burning people alive and tying children together before slitting their throats.

More than 70 percent of the country's 12 million people need assistance, while 2.2 million people have fled their homes, the UN says, with areas on the brink of famine.