Pretoria - Five top Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) former detainees are back home after an absence from December 2013, rising hope that a peace deal is edging closer to fruition.
Deng Alor, John Luk Jok, Kosti Manibe, Madut Biar, and Cirino Heiteng were detained shortly after unrest erupted in Juba on December 15, 2013.
They were released in January 2014 following intervention from Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and handed over to the custody of the authorities in Kenya.
They arrived back in Juba on Monday, accompanied by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, together with the Secretary-General of Tanzania's ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi as part of ongoing regional efforts to facilitate peace and stability in South Sudan.
Speaking to the media on arrival in Juba, Deputy President Ramaphosa, who is also President Jacob Zuma’s special envoy to South Sudan, said this is a big day for peace in South Sudan.
“This is a new phase in the peace-making process. They are here on preparatory mission; a mission that will end with the return home of SPLM leaders made up of Former Detainees,” said the Deputy President.
There have been two parallel processes, on the one hand, the IGAD consisting of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Sudan have been leading the now stalled Addis Ababa talks in Ethiopia.
On the other hand, Tanzania and South Africa have led the reunification of the ruling party at the SPLM talks in Arusha.
The IGAD talks managed to get the warring factions to sign two cessation of hostilities agreement - but the pacts have been severally broken and have not managed to end fighting in the country.
South Sudan's ruling party SPLM is still fractured despite the signing of the South Africa - Tanzania led agreement in Arusha, Tanzania.
Deputy President Ramaphosa said they walking every inch of the way with South Sudan as they try to consolidate peace.
“What we seek to do is to get to the real source of the problem - disagreement within the party - (and) to get the party to start functioning as the party that leads the government here in South Sudan… what we are seeking to do in a demonstrable way is to show that the two processes - reunification of the party and the peace process as it impacts on governance and the structure of government - are complementary.”
The special envoy urged the people of the world's youngest nation to support this process of rebuilding and unifying the SPLM.
“We know you are tired of the war. We know the war has brought a lot of suffering to all the people of South Sudan,” he said, adding that peace-making in the face of war is a difficult process.
“Building peace in South Sudan is the only way out. War is no alternative.” –SAnews.gov.za
