Dec 25, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — A senior armed opposition official and one of the former governors of the defunct Imatong State, Dr. Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, is wondering of how some government officials are pushing for elections when the country has no official army, police and security forces in place.
The former lecturer of the Juba University, who was responding to senior government officials backed by the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, wants the security arrangement implemented if elections are to be held.
“How can government hold general elections without implementing Security Arrangements and Unification of forces?” Dr. Oyet questions.
“For how long will this delays go? and for how long will the Transitional Period be? For parties to comfortably say that now we can go for general elections” He continued.
While meeting the U.K and U.S. ambassadors recently in Jinja, Uganda, president Museveni tried to persuade the TROIKA officials to push Kiir and Machar to hold elections with hopes that the politicians may form new alliances that could help them rebuild trust and spirit of solidarity.
According to Dr. Oyet, however, the peace agreement cannot be sustained if the forces are not unified and security arrangements are not fully implemented.
“How sustainable can the Peace process be without implementing Security Arrangements as required?” He said.
Oyet speaks of danger of maintaining parallel forces in the country, saying there will be political, security and socio-economic implications.
“As the warring parties shall keep their forces under their armpits, what shall be the political, security and socio economic implications on the country?” He said.
The former governor of the defunct Imatong state wants new changes in the implementation process adopted in the new year.
“As we are ending the year, we expect a new year to offer hope for suffering population, the business community and the general public and citizens of South Sudan.” He added.
“We expect a change of strategy of implementing the Agreement. A more robust approach to achieving sustainable peace for the people of South Sudan and the country.” He continued.
Dr. Nathaniel is worried that if the intention of those who are delaying the security arrangement is to frustrate the forces in the cantonment sites and training centers so that they disperse, then such a strategy must be a wrong one.
“Where are these forces going to after deserting the centers? Isn’t it to where they came from? and definitely they shall never be under their Command and Control” He said.
Oyet blames such delays on some people he believes could be security advisers to president Kiir; however, he thinks such people are misleading the president.
“It is a non Zero Sum game. If the President’s Security advisers were saying, this was “Zero Sum Game”, it is not. It is the other way round. They have never answered a number of fundamental questions” He said.
The South Sudanese peace agreement, which was signed on September 12, 2018, was supposed to be implemented within three years before the country heads into elections; however, two years and four months have gone and the parties are still discussing mechanisms that should have been implemented in the pre-transitional period.
The parties are aware that there is no political will to timely implement the peace agreement but they are banking on hopes that the little progress they are making could be enhanced and things may change for the better in the upcoming year.
