By Bida Elly David
The hope of Rome peace talks yielding fruits hangs in the balance as South Sudan government rejected calls from the hold-out group demanding a roundtable talks for the suspension of the roadmap in a bid to form a joint government until election period.
This development came following recommendations generated by the hold-out groups to the Rome peace talks calling off their participation from the dialogue.
Information minister and government spokesperson Michael Makuei, told reporters after Friday council of ministers meeting that government will not tolerate another negotiation to form another interim government noting that the roadmap is enough to push the Country to elections.
“We are saying no, we are not going for any further negotiations on the period. This roadmap is ready to take us for elections. They have to join us on the roadmap because they were originally signatories to the secession of hostilities. So, we were part and parcel of this agreement and this is what we are saying,” he added.
Makuei said the holdout group in their opinion suggested that they cannot continue with the Rome talks until government agrees on their agenda of having a conference meeting.
“According to them, they don’t recognize the roadmap saying that the transitional period has finished as stated in the agreement. They said that we should sit down and agree on new terms how best we can manage South Sudan up-to the time that we will go for elections,” the government spokesperson disclosed.
According to Makuei, the holdout groups called for the consultative meeting with the intension of creating another political agenda to interrupt the peace roadmap which he said will not work for now.
“They have called off the meeting for further consultation. Whether they will agree to continue with the Rome peace talks or not is the art of negotiation until you reach somewhere,” he stated.
Michael further added that the cabinet also passed three bills consisting public finance management and accountability act 2011-2023 amended bill, Bank of South Sudan act 2011 amended 2023 and national security act 2022-2023 and referred it to the Revitalized Transitional National Legislative Assembly(R-TNLA) for further deliberations and enactment.
“These bills were presented to the cabinet, discussed and passed and the minister was directed to present it to the national legislative assembly for further considerations and enactment. These bills were passed to conform with provisions of the agreement,” he said.
Minister Makuei noted that two provisions within the national security act that were not approved on the account that they were controversial saying one of them was about permitting security officers to arrest criminals.
“There were two provisions for national security that were not cleared. Those provisions were approved but were controversial. It was decided that the two provisions should go to the principals for consideration. The principals agreed that the provisions which gave the powers to the national security to arrest should be deleted,” he said.
Makuei hinted that South Sudan government is still in a continuous battle with the United Nations Security Council over the arms embargo against the nation saying that they will have to guarantee the right to procure ammunitions for national defense.