Opposition From South Sudan Rejects Bill That Would Allow Detention Without Warrant
Dr Workneh Gebeyehu from the IGAD, accompained by South Sudaneses Diplomats, July 2024 Photo: @AUC_PAPS
July 10, 2024 Hour: 3:42 pm
The peace talks in the African country, which had almost come to an end, again came to a standstill.
Peace talks in South Sudan are hampered by opposition’s refusal to draft a law that would allow people to be detained without an arrest warrant if ratified by President Salva Kiir.
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“This law violates the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens of South Sudan and eliminates civic and political space,” said the negotiator on behalf of the South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance, Pagan Amum Okiech.
He also assured that “there can be no peace or democracy under such a law”.
The parliament voted in favor of the 2015 law and the president would have to approve it within 30 days for it to become law.
For his part, the executive director of the Community Empowerment Organization for Progress, Edmund Yakani, who is also part of the negotiations, said that this project «created a negative spirit for the negotiations».
This comes before the country’s first elections, to be held on 22 December. These were postponed in 2021, due to the 2018 Government-Opposition Peace Agreement.
However, rebel groups that did not sign the agreement are currently in talks in Kenya with government members
The independence of South Sudan took place on 9 July 2011 and was the result of an agreement in 2005, although it did not end the conflict in the new African state.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: Africanews-DW
