Press Release from the SPLM-DC on Hon. Makwei Lueth
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Dr Lam Akol Prevented from Traveling to Addis Ababa for Peace Talks
Date: 13 September 2014
At about 2:30 pm today, the authorities in Juba prevented Dr Lam Akol, the Leader of Delegation of the Political Parties to the peace talks, from travel to Addis Ababa to take part in the peace talks. Four other members of the delegation, Ismail Suleiman Saeed, David William Tut, Albino John Lako and Sarah Nene Redento, also did not travel.
The delegation held a press conference at the airport describing the measure as a violation of the country’s constitution which guarantees freedom of movements to all citizens. Dr Lam Akol explained the background of the decision as the government’s intention to replace the delegation of the political parties with one comprising political parties represented in the current government. Such a scenario, he stressed, would mean that the government would practically have two delegations at the talks: the direct one and the proxy one under the guise of political parties. Dr Lam explained that from the moment the political parties published in July their position on the resolution of the armed conflict, the government has shown open hostility to the political parties. It had thought that they would have supported it blindly. Things came to a head in Addis Ababa on the 15th of August when the same position paper was tabled before a plenary sitting of the stakeholders. Dr Lam reminded the press people of the defection then of four members of the political parties delegation who are in the government under threat from the government delegation in Addis Ababa.
Dr lam Akol told the press that back in Juba the four defectors were joined by the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Minister of Information in creating a rift between the political parties. Due to the government’s sticks and carrots, the parties in the Political Parties Leadership Forum that are represented in the government broke away, declared that they have dismissed Dr Lam from the leadership of the delegation and formed a delegation of their own composed entirely of parties in the government including the SPLM. When the official delegation led by Dr Lam Akol was invited to Addis Ababa and their illegal delegation was not, this became too much to the government, hence the decision to prevent Dr Lam Akol from travelling to Addis Ababa.
Members of the delegation stressed that they will insist on the independence of the political parties and called upon IGAD and the international community to bring pressure to bear on the government to respect that independence. They wondered why political parties that are part of the government should look for representation outside the government’s delegation to the talks, asserting that the delegation of the political parties should exclusively represent the opposition parties.
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