Dr. Lam Akol, member of South Sudan Opposition Alliance | File Photo

The chairman of the opposition party, SPLM-DC, Doctor Lam Akol Ajawin, is calling for negotiation between all armed groups and the government in order to avoid any recurrence of rebellion.

Many rebel group leaders have responded to the recent presidential call to put down arms and rejoin the national army.

However, the David Yau Yau who is leading an insurgency in his home state has ignored the Presidential offer.

“It does not make sense to give amnesty to those who have been fighting the government and you don’t release the political detainees who are just opposing the government,” Dr. Lam Akol told Eye Radio today.

Doctor Lam also calls for release of “political prisoners and then the whole thing becomes part of the national reconciliation process.”

Doctor Lam also said the national reconciliation conference should include all stakeholders in the country:

“We must have a preparatory committee made up of all the political parties and the civil society organizations to prepare the agenda, to prepare the place for the conference, to prepare who is to be invited and so on. This needs to be done in this manner so that you have a dialogue between South Sudanese.”

Dr. Lam was a prominent member of the SPLM after he rejoined the party in 2003, after 12 years during which he joined a breakaway faction that attempted to overthrow the late SPLM’s leader John Garang in 1991 and aligned with north Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party.

He split again from the SPLM in 2009 to form the SPLM-DC and later stood as a candidate against President Kiir in South Sudan’s presidential elections of April 2010.