Members of the Political Bureau of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement have reported agreement on an agenda and rules of engagement for the intra-party dialogue hosted in the Ethiopian capital city.

The East African regional organization IGAD last week hosted another round of meetings of the SPLM intra-party dialogue, while delaying the start of formal peace talks between the South Sudanese government and rebels.

John Luk, former justice minister and the spokesman of the ‘Group of Seven’ former detainees known also as the SPLM-G7 faction, told Radio Tamazuj yesterday that four SPLM Political Bureau members participated from the SPLM-Juba faction led by Salva Kiir and four participated from the opposition side.

He explained that the meeting resulted in agreement on an agenda for a planned larger meeting of the Political Bureau.

“Over the last three days we discussed the problems within the SPLM, the differences within the movement, such as the organizational issues, the leadership within the movement, democratic and popular questions,” he said. 

Luk is one of the SPLM Political Bureau members who participated at the meeting. He and the others in the group issued a statement from Addis Ababa after the meeting calling themselves the ‘Joint Preparatory Committee for the SPLM Intra-Party Dialogue.’ The statement is reproduced below.

Full text statement, 25 April 2014:

We members of the Political Bureau (PB) of the SPLM, mandated to work on the preparations for the Intra-Party Dialogue met in Addis Ababa, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, under the facilitation of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to engage in a preparatory work that lays a solid ground for the smooth deliberation of the Intra-Party Dialogue by the Political Bureau (PB) of the SPLM.

The meeting which took place from the 23rd to 26th of April 2014, was conducted with a sense of responsibility and cordiality and has reached agreement on the following:

a) Objectives of the Intra-Party Dialogue;

b) Agenda to be discussed by the Political Bureau (PB);

c) Rules of engagement for the Intra-Party Dialogue and

d) Continuation of the discussion on the remaining issues.

The delegations are satisfied with the conduct of the preparatory work and wish to express continued commitment to the finalization of the preparation for the Intra-Party Dialogue.

We believe that this inclusive process and efforts that we have undertaken and the commitments that we have made will help us in taking the process forward and assist us in finding a peaceful and lasting solution to the current challenges facing our country. It is in this spirit that we welcome the release of the remaining four detainees by the Government of the Republic of South Sudan. It is our belief that this spirit will open the way for future unity of the party and national reconciliation. `

File photo:  Anne Itto and Luka Biong Deng of the SPLM speak with each other during trilateral meetings between the US, SPLM, and NCP, 19 August 2009 (Flickr/Sudan Envoy)

Related coverage:

SPLM ‘leadership review’ initiated in Addis Ababa (5 Apr.)

Ethiopian premier seeking to break deadlock in South Sudan peace talks (4 Apr.)

SPLM seven: ‘We must sit down to dialogue’ (28 Mar.)