JUBA: SOUTH Sudan opposition parties have accused government of scuttling prospects of a peace agreement by making ‘impossible demands’.
The opposition said government made a host of demands to distract attention from discussing the root causes of the conflict.
The opposition groups pointed to the attacks on the rebel positions in Equatoria, Bahr el Ghazal and Jonglei regions saying the purpose of the military operations was to portray the SPLM-Io as not interested in peace.
Further, they said the government’s refusal to ink the declaration of principles was another indicator of the lack of interest.
“The government delegation also made a host of demands, including rejecting demilitarizing Juba and the major towns, dissolution of the sector in order to allow reconstitution of the army in a way reflective of different faces and ethnicities in the country”, the statement stressed.
On 16 February, the mediators suspended the talks to revitalize the South Sudan peace agreement after 11 days of discussions on the security and constitutional and governance matters without tangible progress.
After the suspension of the talks, South Sudanese government officials sought to explain their positions and made several statements in this respect, stressing that the peace agreement is difficult to implement.
