NOT ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF THE CURRENT CONFLICT AS WELL AS THE EXCLUSION OF OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE PEACE TALKS IS AN OBSTACLE TO REACHING A LASTING PEACE DEAL IN THE COUNTRY.

By Tor Madira Machier .

Opinion.

INCLUSION OF OTHER   STAKEHOLDERS

Sept 08, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — Any lasting peace deal in South Sudan must be reached unless an equal participation of other Politcal Parties, Civil Society organisations as well as Human Right bodies and other stakeholders is guaranteed. Most of the documents agreed upon by the government of South Sudan led by president Salva Kiir and the SPLA/M led by Dr. Riek Machar Teny excludes the political parties from expressing their views on the documents.

Owing to the current political turmoil in the country, peace can be reached unless every one in the Republic of South Sudan is given the chance to express him/her self on any peace agreement in the country.

Look !, though all the political entities has the right to participate in the country’s affairs, the government with deep IGAD backing fear that their participation may limit their( govt ) demands and might be the turning point to the government if they ( political parties )may have to demands the formation of an interim body (government) excluding the former( current government ) from the new down. Hence the government with its dear ally, the IGAD have limited the role of the other stakeholders in the peace process. And this will be a red line in achieving a lasting peace deal. South Sudan has got atleast 17 registered political entities, every one of these political entities as got alot of supporters, therefore any agreement that ignore other political parties’ view is an effective ignorance to the people of South Sudan and this, is a unacceptable agreement that will not help solve the current conflict as well.

If you observes the interim government proposed by the IGAD on the 25th of August, you can see that it has caused a lot of controversial debates with the SPLM/A (IO) ,political parties, the G11 which are the former detainees and also the citizicens of the Republic of South including the displaced people calling it a suspicious and a bias game being played on them by the IGAD. Then if this is the subject, who will abide by it ? No one because it does not reflex the view of the people of the Republic of South Sudan.

ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF THE CONFLICT

Any peace talks in Addis Ababa without addressing the root causes of the conflict is effectively a waste of resources and time by the regional body.

Addressing the root causes of the conflict means finding out what was behind the cause of what has now became a conflict and who is responsible for it and who to be blamed and so what to be done so that the people of South Sudan reconciles. In this definition the first thing the IGAD should do is to address the root causes of the conflict and then fine out who is responsible for this catastrophic conflict,and after this the people should decide where they are destined, allow the president finish his tenure, chose an interim leader or else.

So any agreement not addressing the root causes of the conflict will not solve it because the people will feel it as a defeat by some one whom they have elected to the office with help from his foreign allies, so it will spark a full scale civil war that will last like that one of the struggle for independence in which the then Sudanese Khatoum based regime signed a joint military operation with Egypt , Iran and the late Osama Bin Laden the founder of al Qaeda terrorist group among others, by then the people of South Sudan did continued the struggle for the independence that the Salva Kiir’s Juba based government is enjoying today. Hence let the IGAD address the root causes of the conflict and observes what will be the outcome of that agreement.

Tor Madira Machier is a South Sudanese student living in Egypt, he can be reached at : tormadira2013@gmail.com or +201024930577