Politics: Arusha initiative planned without IGAD involvement
Facilitators of the recent Arusha initiative for intra-SPLM dialogue failed to notify IGAD mediators of their initiative until after it had already started, a diplomatic source told Radio Tamazuj.
Tanzanian ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) hosted a weeklong meeting in mid-October among three factions of South Sudan’s now divided ruling party SPLM, including the two armed factions SPLM-Juba and SPLM-IO.
Previously African Union Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had endorsed the joint involvement of Ethiopian ruling party EPRDF and South Africa’s ANC in the same role, “within the framework of the IGAD-led peace process.”
This earlier intra-SPLM dialogue initiative dating to April 2014 was coordinated with IGAD and involved some of the same key actors, including Ethiopian premier Hailemariam Desalegn, who heads both IGAD and EPRDF.
Tanzania’s involvement, on the other hand, was not coordinated with IGAD. IGAD’s mediation team recently informed other diplomats in Addis Ababa that it was not officially notified of the Arusha initiative, the same source said.
Radio Tamazuj contacted the Tanzanian Foreign Ministry repeatedly to confirm whether they had had any contacts on the matter with either the IGAD mediation or bilaterally with any IGAD member state, but they declined to respond.
Another source pointed to the role of SPLM-Juba faction leader Salva Kiir in initiating the Arusha conference, saying he had approached Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete about the issue on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.
Soon after this meeting one of Kiir’s negotiators began calling for the transfer of the IGAD-led peace talks away from Ethiopia and questioned the role of the Ethiopian chief mediator.
At about the same time the Finnish organization Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) became involved in organizing and financing the upcoming Arusha meeting.
CMI Country Manager Johanna Poutanen told Radio Tamazuj, “SPLM [Juba faction] appealed to its sisterly party CCM for support in resolving its internal crisis. CMI… has supported CCM as the principal host and facilitator of the dialogue process.”
Asked why CMI did not make any contact with IGAD mediators prior to the Arusha meeting, Poutanen declined to give a specific reason, instead noting that their effort was not intended to conflict with the IGAD process.
“The Intra-SPLM Dialogue process aims to complement ongoing IGAD efforts… The process was planned and implemented in coordination with regional actors from the earliest stages,” she said, without specifying whether IGAD, EPRDF or ANC were among the “regional actors” involved in the planning.
Ethiopia and South Africa
Ethiopia’s ruling party EPRDF hosted and facilitated intra-SPLM meetings beginning in April 2014, joined by South Africa’s ANC.
IGAD mediators referred to the EPRDF-led initiative formally as the “SPLM Leadership Review and Self-Assessment Forum”; Tanzanian organizers have called their initiative simply the “Intra-SPLM Dialogue.”
EPRDF veteran Bereket Simon, who headed the facilitation in April, made a speech emphasizing his own party's strong commitment to the process while urging South Sudanese leaders to “take responsibility for failure.”
He also urged SPLM leaders to be “open, clear and transparent” about their problems. The Tanzanian party, on the other hand, required participating SPLM leaders to commit to ‘confidentiality’, according to the Rules of Engagement signed at the Arusha meeting.
Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, leaders of the SPLM-Juba and SPLM-IO factions, both welcomed the Arusha initiative and met together in the Tanzanian city on 20 October, during an adjournment of the separate IGAD-led talks.
Following this meeting the ANC party’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa recently visited both Juba and Dar es Salaam. The outcomes of his visits were not clear.
Photo: SPLM leaders with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, 20 October 2014
Related:
Documents: intra-SPLM dialogue framework and communique (21 Oct.)