Pagan Amum, member of the National Consensus Forum and leader of the Real SPLM. (Photo: Courtesy).

The leader of Real SPLM,  a holdout group is seeking clarification from the government and the community of Sant Egidio on whether the Rome peace process has failed after President Kiir requested his Kenyan counterpart to mediate between the parties.

According to Pagan Amum who spoke on an online South Sudanese-run TV on Saturday, said the Head of State neither consulted with the holdout groups nor the Sant Egidio.

“President Kiir did not consult with the non-signatory force of the peace agreement, not even Sant’Egidio,” said Pagan Amum.

Amun is seeking to know whether the government intends to quit the Rome peace process he said the hold-out groups already signed some documents with the government.

“We want clarification from the government because it is not possible to create two different platforms for negotiation.  we want to know, if the government has exited the Rome Initiative, what about the signed documents we signed?

” When we asked Sant’Egidio, they said that they did not know about the new initiative and they had not received notification from the government about exiting the Rome Initiative.

He added that before accepting the Kenyan government to mediate any peace talks, there is a need for the parties to discuss security issues particularly what he said, crimes committed by agents against government critics.

“We must discuss security issues and a group of crimes that were committed by agents of the regime in Kenya. These issues must be discussed before accepting Kenya as an alternative, and after that, we will need to know the issues that must be discussed.

“We are not in a rush. We will wait for the response from the government and the community of Sant Ejido to find out whether the Rome Initiative failed,” he said.

Amun also said the parties will need to discuss with the government plans for the elections it is for.

‘With the government for the elections, we want to know the plans,” he added.

Earlier, while the South Sudan United Front led by the General welcomed the initiative with a call for commitment from the government, the National Salvation Front said it was not read to be mediated by the Kenyan government, citing the country is unsafe.

Besides, NAS said the government and the holder groups differed over agendas of the peace process and not the venue of the talks.

The community of Sant Egidio has yet to comment on the matter.