SOUTH SUDAN PEACE TALKS ON THE WAY TO FINALIZATION

By Peter Kleto,

Oct 9, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — It was indeed painful for both warring parties to even consider sitting round the table in order to iron out their political differences. The call by the IGAD heads of state was based on the believe that all human problems can be amicably resolved or settle by human beings and this believe was bought by the warring parties in south sudan and it was evident by their coming to the ethiopian capital, addis ababa for peace talks.  The government side also have fear about the consequences of not attending to the peace talks as the world decline to buy their product of coup de, tat.

It has now become clear that the argument of the rebel that president salva Kiir was using coup to eliminate democratic voices within the Sudan people’s liberation movement is true and almost all of the population with the exception of few bribes individual knows this truth. But regardless of that, the sides have been in the Ethiopian capital since January 2014 and have now reached the last phase of the peace process which is power sharing and most importantly the definition of the responsibilities of would be prime minister and that of the president.

Direct source from the talks says that the government delegation wants the president to be head of government and security meanwhile the rebel and contending that the prime minister who will be appointed by the rebel should be head of government and security while the president will only be a ceremonial one like the case in ethiopia and other federal system in the world.

Indeed the argument of the rebel is right because under federal system of governance, the prime minister will always head the government and security while the president act as a ceremonial one. Please note that the government delegation have agreed to the implementation of a federal system of government in south sudan. This is indeed a step forward in the right direction and some of us are hoping that the government delegation will convince president Salva kiir to accept the prime minister to head the government and security sector otherwise the whole effort will collapse to zero.

I therefore, hope that the two sides will both come to the negotiating table and negotiate in good faith and with sincerity. It is also important to note here that the root causes of the conflict must be placed on the table as some of us believe that peace will not return to south sudan if root causes of the conflict is not uncovered and solution find. Our late hero, Dr. John Garang said  there is no short cut to freedom, therefore, to achieve freedom, you must prepare for a long walk.

Peter Kleto can be reached at peterkleto@gmail.com