Dec 17, 2016(Nyamilepedia) ——— Speaking to BBC Africa, South Sudan’s former Defense Minister and a member of the Former Political Detainees, Dr. Majak D’Agoot, narrates that President Salva Kiir’s calls for a national dialogue is nothing but an attempt to consolidate powers.
Dr. Majak reiteretes that President Salva Kiir started the killing of ethnic Nuer in Juba in December 2013 in attempt to silence his opponents.
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The former Deputy Defense Minister said President Kiir has no heart to call for a national dialogue because he [Salva Kiir] refused to sign the peace agreement in the first place in August 2015 and went on to undermine its implementation by creating a new conflict in July 2015.
“You cannot actually make a dessert and call it peace” Dr. Majak said referring to president Kiir’s call for a “national dialogue”
“He undermined the peace agreement in July 2016, he has not been committed to the signing of the peace agreement in the first place and this led to the outbreak of hostilities in July 2016” Dr. Majak said.
“And therefore he is trying to consolidate the status quo that he has created and this does not mean anything in term of trying to bring the people of South Sudan together” Dr. Majak continued.
According to Dr. Majak, the only solution to bring together the people of South Sudan is a around-table dialogue between the stakeholders of South Sudan.
His group, the former detainees, has called for an inclusive dialogues between all the stakeholders to neutralize the current status quo and reconcile the people of South Sudan.
“The solution from our [FD] perspectives rest squarely with a proposal we put across recently where we have called for a round-table conference of all South Sudanese stakeholders and all the affected constituencies so that we are able to have a clean break from the status quo that has created this kind of stagnation”
The FDs are proposing that South Sudan should be led by a “Caretaker Administration of Technocrats”(CAT) that is different from the current and former Transitional Government of National Unity(TGNU) which has failed and collapsed.
Despite that these proposals have reached the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission(JMEC) and other Peace Monitors, the defunct peace bodies are confident that the TGNU is still alive and active,
Instead, JMEC Chairman Festus Mogae has given his assurance to President Salva Kiir that his administration and his partners will support national dialogue as much as they can.
The Chairman said, “The President has seized a critical opportunity for national reconciliation; he has appealed for a spirit of forgiveness and togetherness; and he has set in motion a campaign to address the concerns and grievances of the South Sudanese people.” Said Festus Mogae, JMEC Chairman.
“I applaud the President’s leadership in this matter and we, JMEC, will support the National Dialogue in any way we can. The President has called for peace, unity, forgiveness and dialogue and this is undoubtedly a very good starting point for the New Year.” Mogae continued.
JMEC Blames Failures on July Fighting
The Chairman of JMEC acknowledges that his organization has not achieved anything so far, however, he blames the failures on the resumption of conflict in Juba in July this year.
“We all know very well that our modest accomplishments have been outweighed by a number of squandered opportunities. Suffice to say, however, that, if it weren’t for the unfortunate events of July, we may very well have achieved something more substantial.” Mogae said.
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