By FRED OLUOCH

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Could the continued detention of the South Sudan rebel leader, Dr Riek Machar in South Africa and the perception of bias by regional body Igad, derail the political talks set for February?

Opposition members are concerned that the recent visit to South Africa by President Salva Kiir was meant to reinforce Dr Machar’s house arrest and could send a wrong signal to the rebel side’s negotiators.

Two of the rebel group’s officials, Mabior de Mabior and the spokesperson in Kenya, James Oryem, told The EastAfrican that the detention will negatively impact the talks because Dr Machar is not free to mingle with the delegates.

The conveners of the talks, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) and the Troika — UK, US and Norway — have also been accused of siding with President Kiir and tacitly backing Dr Machar’s immobilisation.

“The SPLM-IO maintains the position that as long as President Kiir, who is a party to the conflict, is also mediator in the Igad process, the peace process lacks credibility. This state of affairs has resulted in the illegal detention of our chairman and commander-in-chief in South Africa at the behest of Igad, and furthered the isolation of the SPLM-In Opposition leadership in the region,” said De Mabior.

House arrest

Dr Machar has been under house arrest in Pretoria since December 2016 when the Juba government convinced Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and other partners to isolate him after he fled in July when fresh clashes broke out in the capital. They were supported by former US Secretary of State John Kerry.

New players in the Igad revitalisation programme such as Dr Lam Akol, Gen Thomas Cirillo and Col Joseph Bakosoro, have also called for Dr Machar’s release for the sake of inclusivity, saying that some of their supporters are urging them to boycott the talks should the opposition leader remain in captivity.

However, deputy military spokesperson Col Gabriel Lam said that Dr Machar supports the peace efforts and is likely to delegate the leadership to others that are empowered to make decisions.

“Dr Machar is ready to bring peace to South Sudan. The question is whether Igad is ready to be neutral for the sake of peace or if it will continue to sideline Dr Machar in favour of Salva Kiir and first vice-president Taban Deng Gai,” said Col Lam.

While meeting the new African National Congress chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa, President Kiir said Dr Machar is only interested in power and not re-unification of the three South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement factions, which could help end the war.

Ceasefire

The ANC, together with Tanzania’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi, have been pushing for the reunification of the SPLM splinter groups as the first step to ending the bloodletting because the civil strife emerged from disagreements over the leadership structure in the South Sudan ruling party.

Samuel Atabi, a South Sudan political commentator says Igad sought to scuttle the opposition leadership when they decided to put the leader of the SPLA-IO under house arrest far away from the theatre of battle.

In the meantime, both the government and the rebels continue to spar over the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed on December 21, with the rebels accusing Igad of ignoring their reports of violations by the government.

De Mabior accused Ismail Wais, the Igad special envoy to South Sudan, of allowing Mr Deng to move with troops and battle tanks to Jonglei, yet the agreement expressly disallows movement of troops from their positions.

Mr Wais dismissed the allegation as “misleading” and “irresponsible”.