Thomas Cirilo: There is still a ‘wide gap’ between parties on governance dossier

July 24th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – The leader of South Sudan’s National Salvation Front (NAS) Thomas Cirilo  said today in a statement that there is still a wide gap between the South Sudan parties in Khartoum over the governance issue which is still pending.

The Sudanese government announced on Sunday that the parties, including the South Sudan government and SPLM-IO, will sign a peace agreement on Thursday, July 26th 2018.

However, in a statement issued today, Thomas Cirilo, the leader of the NAS said there is still a gap between parties over the governance issue despite a schedule by the mediators for the signing ceremony of a final agreement for peace in South Sudan.

“In this respect,” Cirilo wrote in a statement, “NAS leadership would like to inform our members and the people of South Sudan that there is still a wide gap in governance discussions between the parties to the conflict.”

The statement further pointed out that all the previous proposals presented by the Sudanese mediation failed to address the root cause of the bloody conflict in the world’s youngest war-torn country, South Sudan.

“All the proposals on governance developed by the facilitators and mediators have fallen short of addressing the root causes of the conflict in South Sudan, let alone cultivating trust among the parties,” the statement said.

The opposition group said the main issues that the parties are still to reach consensus includes the governance, the question of federalism, the number of states, inclusivity in the responsibility sharing at all levels of governance down to the County, as well as the number of cabinet positions, the size of the parliament (TNLA) and that of the Council of States.

The statement further said attempts to impose peace will be a recipe for further violence and suffering of the people of South Sudan.

“Therefore any attempt to artificially impose a peace agreement without taking into consideration the virtues of inclusivity and the sustainability may not achieve sustainable peace. Rather, it will serve as a recipe to more conflict and human suffering,” the statement said.

However, the statement ran short of declaring whether the group were ready to sign the agreement or not should the mediators insist on its signature on Thursday.