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April 30 (Bloomberg) — South Sudan’s warring parties will
discuss a halt to fighting and a possible interim government
when direct talks to end the four-month-old conflict restart
tomorrow, chief mediator Seyoum Mesfin said.
Negotiations between the government and rebels will focus
on implementing a Jan. 23 truce that hasn’t held, as well as
details of a transitional government, Seyoum told reporters
today in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, where the talks will
take place.
Envoys from East African nations have told both sides there
will be no more “talks about talks,†Seyoum said. “We want
the parties to focus and pin down to substantive negotiations.â€
Fighting that erupted in South Sudan on Dec. 15 between
factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy
Riek Machar has left thousands of people dead and driven more
than a million from their homes, according to the United
Nations.
The conflict has pushed the world’s newest nation to the
edge of catastrophe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Navi Pillay said today.
“The deadly mix of recrimination, hate speech and revenge
killings that has developed relentlessly over the past four and
a half months seems to be reaching boiling point,†she told
reporters in South Sudan’s capital, Juba.
Truce monitors from East African nations are in the state
capitals of Malakal, Bor and Bentiu, Seyoum said. The UN, the
African Union and East African nations are still negotiating the
establishment of a force to protect the monitors, he said.
While a spokesman for the insurgents, Yohanis Musa Pouk,
said the rebels are keen to discuss an interim government and
other political matters, the South Sudan government’s chief
negotiator, Nhial Deng Nhial, said a halt to the violence was
the key issue.
“The focus is not on transitional government or
arrangements, the focus is really on stopping the war,†Nhial
said in an interview.
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