By Dominic Ukello
Opinion
October 27th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – Until recently, International Community focused its attention on the negotiation of peace agreements to resolve conflicts in the Republic of South Sudan and paid little attention to effective implementation process.
Unfortunately, during the last decades it has been proven that insufficiency in implementation of agreements has led to a serious consequences of failure to achieve a sustainable peace in the country. The notion that a contract or an agreement between state and armed opposition parties would remain binding in the post-agreement phase, has been dishonest.
The reality reveal that, in the 1980s and 1990s, a just negotiated agreements in such countries as Angola, Cambodia, and Liberia collapsed and resulted in new deadly violence. In fact, in some cases more blood was shed after failure to implement a peace accord than before the peace negotiations began.
Suspicious of implementation of any agreement in the Republic of South Sudan has been shadowed constantly. Some of the factors that led to this shadow of failing to implement peace agreements in the country are lack of political will or seriousness to implement an agreement, security dilemmas of the warring parties, inadequate international involvement, the presence of spoilers whose commitment to peace is only tactical, vague, incomplete, or expedient peace agreements, and the lack of coordination among implementing agencies.
Such elements are merely a first step to understanding the problem of implementation in the country. As of yet there has not been systematic, rigorous empirical examination of these factors. And even if such explanations offer general insight into the problems of implementation, there is a need to develop policy-relevant strategies to overcome the reasons for failure to implement any peace agreement.
However, after the successful implementation of Comprehensive Peace Agreement CPA in 9th January 2005, the government under leadership of President Salva Kiir Mayardit, has been blamed for falling short of implementing any agreements between the state and the opposition parties.
Even when a settlement is negotiated and agreed as of ARCSS in 17 August 2015, a simplistic and a short term view of how to implement an agreement has undermined success of the agreement in the Republic of South Sudan.
The government of the country under leadership of president Salva Kiir Mayardit, continuously assuming incorrectly that the government can achieve peace and therefore stabilize the economy, after outright military victory.
Unfortunately, the government could not discover in conflict after another that, even if its succeeded, winning the war militarily would bring a sustainable peace in the Republic of South Sudan. Only peaceful resolution and effective implementation of an agreement remains a fundamental aspect of resolving any conflict in the Republic of South Sudan.
Moreover, critical factors of successful peace implementation in the Republic of South Sudan are demobilization, disarmament of civilians armed by the Juba regime, and restructure of armed forces to be a national army. The absence of these factors allows for a continuation of conflict.
The author, Dominic Ukello, is the former SPLM-IO governor of Wau Federal State.
