A group of South Sudanese opposition politicians yesterday joined together to announce the exclusion of Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, chairman of the South Sudan Democratic Forum from a joint position paper and to accuse him of ‘intimidation,’ making ‘careless allegations,’ and lying.

The political parties at a news conference yesterday called for an end to the ongoing civil war and warned against politicians who are “exploiting other people’s tragedies for parochial interests” and who “fish in troubled waters and care only about their immediate benefits.”

Lomuro is the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and as such is closely aligned with the ruling SPLM-Juba faction headed by Salva Kiir, though nominally he belongs to another political party. His party the South Sudan Democratic Forum (SSDF) is not to be confused with the former armed group having the same acronym.

He was criticized yesterday by parties belonging to the Political Parties Leadership Forum (PPLF), a loose association of smaller parties also with the occasional participation of the ruling faction of the SPLM, SPLM-Juba. The political parties, though having different viewpoints, are trying to coordinate a joint position so that they can join the peace talks as a distinct ‘stakeholder’.

The opposition politicians said they were ‘forced’ to hold a press conference after Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro and another politician, Joseph Ukel Obanga, chairman of USAP, criticized a position paper produced jointly by the opposition parties and said it does not represent their views.

In a statement read out to the press at the office of the Political Parties Leadership Forum yesterday, the opposition parties responded to the duo’s “unpleasant words.”

They noted that they drafted their joint position paper on the resolution of the conflict after inviting other political parties to submit written inputs. Lomuro’s SSDF and the SPLM both failed to submit inputs.

“Eighteen parties complied and they were the ones that developed our current position paper. A representative of the SPLM and that of the SSDF wanted to take part in the discussion, but they were politely informed that since their parties did not submit written positions, there was no basis for them to be discussing positions of other political parties,” reads the opposition parties’ statement.

“We debated these papers for weeks and were able to come out with a consensus position. This is the paper now Dr. Martin and Mr. Ukel are making noise about.”

“Dr Martin Elia and Mr Joseph Ukel are entitled to write their own position paper, but they have no right whatsoever to deny others the right to do the same.”

‘Careless allegations’, ‘lie’

The statement made yesterday was signed by 18 representatives of PPLF’s 21 political parties, excluding SPLM, USAP and SSDF. It sought to rebut remarks made by the Cabinet Minister allegedly mischaracterizing the parties’ position on the peace talks and formation of a transitional government.

“Without shame, the duo [i.e. Lomuro and Ukel] claimed that we advocated for the exclusion of the president and former vice president from the transitional government. Nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, we maintained that they as the leaders of the warring parties must take charge in leading the transitional government. However, we believe that they alone cannot fulfill the mission of the transitional government and hence the other stakeholders must be included in its formation.”

“We challenge them to prove their errant lie,” the statement continues. “We will not be intimidated by careless allegations.”

The politicians went on to say that Martin Elia in February “branded us as supporters of the rebels” because they advocated for an interim government as a possible solution to the current conflict, while he himself later accepted the idea of an interim government after the 9 May agreement.

They referred to his statements as “intimidation and attempt of blackmail” and further accused the SSDF leader of attempting to take over the leadership of the PPLF group. 

“For the knowledge of those who do not know, Dr. Martin who now wants to claim leadership of the political parties has never attended a single meeting of the Political Parties Leaders [i.e. PPLF] since the beginning of the current crisis in the country.”

Dr Lam Akol, SPLM-DC chairman and a signatory of the opposition statement yesterday, said that Joseph Ukel’s interests will now be represented by the government delegation at the Addis Ababa talks.

He was asked about the effect of such disputes on the future of the political parties, to which he responded, “There is actually no problem, because as far as we are concerned as political parties, we said each and every group has the right to have a position; we don’t tell them not to have a position, but they have no right to tell us not to have a position.”

“We are ready to engage all stakeholders on our position paper, whether individually... or collectively in Addis Ababa,” the statement by the politicians noted.

Photo: PPLF members at the press conference yesterday

Related coverage:

Political parties reject President Kiir’s ‘red line’ (26 June)

Politics: Minor parties jockey for places at S Sudan peace talks (18 June)

South Sudan cabinet minister supports ‘general amnesty’ idea (26 May)