South Sudan peace body urges immediate release of PoWs and detainees

October 1, 2018 (JUBA) - The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) Monday welcomed the presidential order to release all Prisoners of War (PoWs) and political detainees and urged to implement it without delay.

Under Article 2.1.6 of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), Prisoners of War and Detainees shall be released immediately under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

President Kiir on 27 September ordered their immediate release but four days later no one of them has been released yet. For its part, the SPLM-IO welcomed the move saying they released all the PoWs immediately after the signing of the revitalized deal.

In a statement released on Monday JMEC Deputy Chairperson Lt. Gen. Augostino Njoroge urged all peace parties to "honour their commitment to the R-ARCSS, cooperate with the ICRC and release all PoWs and Political Detainees without further delay and that the list of all such released persons, be made public".

The peace implementation monitoring body intends to keep a continued press on the parties and play a active role to ensure the implementation of peace agreement particularly during the pre-transitional period.

In this respect the JMEC urged all the parties and stakeholders who have not yet submitted a complete list of their nominees to the various Agreement Institutions and Mechanisms to do so immediately in order enable the expeditious convening of their activities.

Also it urged to facilitate the operationalization of the Transitional Security Arrangements and the voluntary repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees and internally displaced persons.

(ST)