Peace Monitor says house arrest of Machar puts peace accord in jeopardy

By Awan Achiek

The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) on Thursday said the house arrest of First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, has jeopardized the revitalized peace deal, signed in 2018 to end years of conflict since 2013.

RJMEC said Machar’s arrest breached the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), calling on the parties to de-escalate tensions immediately.

“The gains of the past six-and-a-half years since the Revitalized Peace Agreement was signed,, are too numerous simply to be discarded,” it said in a statement issued in Juba.

RJMEC reminded the parties to the promises they made in the preamble of the R-ARCSS, in which they declared recommitment to peace and constitutionalism and not to repeat mistakes of the past.

“As such, RJMEC calls on the parties to urgently de-escalate tensions and engage in constructive dialogue to address this crisis,” it said.

Peace monitors further called on the parties to uphold their repeated pledges not to return the country to war.

Machar’s party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) in a statement, said a convoy of 20 heavily armed vehicles “forcefully entered” his residence in Juba and disarmed his bodyguards on Wednesday night.

SPLM-IO said that the arrest warrant without clear charges was handed over to Machar by the Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Chol Thon Balok who was accompanied by the Chief of Defense Forces, Gen. Paul Nang and Gen. Charles Chiec Mayor, Chief of the Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Services.