South Sudan Opposition Rejects President's Peace Effort

South Sudanese rebels loyal to former exiled Vice President Riek Machar have rejected President Salva Kiir's latest national dialogue initiative aimed at ending the civil war in the world's youngest nation.



On Monday, Kiir officially launched national dialogue and swore in a 94-member committee to conduct consultations as widely as possible in an attempt to give the people of South Sudan a chance to air their views and aspirations to consolidate peace in the country.



The president had said the dialogue process, guided by "eminent personalities and people of consensus", would involve "all the people of South Sudan except Machar".



Henry Odwar, deputy chairman of Machar's SPLM/A-IO, on Tuesday described the government's dialogue offer as "one-sided", terming it as yet another measure to dismantle the 2015 peace accord.



"President Kiir is not honest with the national dialogue proposal, why would he rule out Machar's participation in the dialogue, whom will he dialogue with?" Odwar told Anadolu Agency.



Peter Mayen Majongdit, chairman of People Liberal Party (PLP) -- a non-armed opposition group -- criticized the complete control of the dialogue process by the president.



"Juba is not a safe avenue for talks especially for those with diverging voices; Kiir's control of dialogue with an iron fist cannot bring meaningful peace," Majongdit said.



South Sudan plunged into civil war when a long-running political feud between Kiir and his sacked deputy Machar exploded into violence, much of it along ethnic lines.



The rival leaders signed a shaky peace deal in August this year. Four months after signing the peace deal to end three years of a brutal civil war, another conflict broke up, first from the presidential palace last July that quickly engulfed the city and ultimately forced Machar out of the capital, Juba. -