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A South Sudanese government delegation is set to travel to Addis Ababa to resume peace talks with rebel leader Riek Machar with a view to halting the conflict in the world's newest state.
"We will go to Addis Ababa on June 30 and resume negotiations on June 31," Information Minister Michael Makuei told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
Makuei, a member of the negotiating team, said the arrangement had been agreed upon with chief mediator Seyoum Mesfin, an Ethiopian member of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), in Juba.
"We met with him [Mesfin] on Monday after the [South Sudanese] president directed him to consult with us [the negotiating team]," he said.
"At our meeting, he briefed us on their consultations, [saying] that they tried their level best to talk to the rebels, but the rebel leader insisted that stakeholders should step aside because they want to discuss directly with the government," Makuei asserted.
He added: "We said we are ready [to negotiate] and will be in Addis on June 30."
South Sudan has been shaken by violence since last December, when President Salva Kiir accused his sacked vice-president, Riek Machar, of plotting to overthrow his regime.
Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have since been displaced in subsequent fighting, while large swathes of the population continue to face an increasingly grave humanitarian crisis.
In recent months, the two rivals have held on-again, off-again peace negotiations in Addis Ababa under the auspices of IGAD, a Djibouti-based East African trade bloc.
The talks, however, stalled last month after the rebels demanded that certain stakeholders – including civil society groups – be excluded from the talks.
In June, both sides agreed to form a transitional government within 60 days, i.e., before August 10.
"We have already run out of the 60 days," Makuei said. "We will go to Addis and resume [negotiations] on July 31. Will ten days be enough to negotiate peace?"
"We… will make sure that we try to negotiate peace and not necessarily within 60 days. We don't want to reach a hasty peace that is fragile; we want a permanent peace," said Makuei.
-Alternate venue-
Makuei revealed that government negotiators had asked to move the venue for talks out of the Ethiopian capital.
"We requested that talks should be moved out of Addis Ababa because Addis is not conducive [to holding negotiations] because it is too congested and… there are people who can easily access the negotiators," he said.
"We need a quiet place apart from Addis; we have left them to decide [the venue]," he added.
Makuei said it remained unclear whether government negotiators would sit down with rebel representatives or would attend multi-stakeholder negotiations.
"We are optimistic that, if the rebels agree to sit and talk with us, we will have peace," he said.
"Our position is to negotiate in a multi-pronged stakeholder dialogue. If the rebels have changed their mind, then a summit should be called. Amend the documents, and we will accept," he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Donald Booth, U.S. envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, said the negotiations would begin in one week.
"The talks are scheduled to resume in a week's time. They should be serious and solve this issue and embark on the rebuilding of the country," Booth said at a news briefing in Juba.
"I suspect if there is a serious negotiation… they can achieve peace," Booth said, adding that the U.S. would continue to work with all parties to the conflict.
"We will continue working with the parties and the IGAD mediators for peace," Booth said.
"The important thing is that the parties… get to the real issues of justice, security and dealing with the resources of South Sudan to benefit the people," he said.
"It's imperative that negotiators sit down in the presence of other stakeholders to find a way of [achieving] a permanent ceasefire in South Sudan," Booth added.
By Okech Francis
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en - Cuba
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