Comment On“National Dialogue”In South Sudan "What we have is not a search for peace or a resolution of violence through dialogue,...It's a dialogue among friends who will not say or do anything to challenge the regime position or the status quo."
02 January 2017 By Nyanyuon Bany No body in their right mind would reject peace or dialogue if it is genuine and free for all to participate. But When peace and dialogue are use as a cover up to fool the international community that something is being done; When it is used as an opportunity to seek funding because the economy is failing; When the regime continues to launch attacks; When refugees continue to leave the country and many remain targets of murder and rape by the regime: Then it is futile and immoral to ask people whose families and communities are ravaged by the regime to join in celebrating a false and empty promise of dialogue. What we have is not a search for peace or a resolution of violence through dialogue, it's essentially a monologue between Kiir regime and those who already agree or are "forced" to pretend to agree with his stands. It's a dialogue among friends who will not say or do anything to challenge the regime position or the status quo. And as we all know, one does not make peace with friends. So unless there is a real push to end the war, unless the regime is willing to sit with those it deems its enemies and unless it is willing to compromise, the war will continue or the country will remain unstable. The uncomfortable truth is that the politicians in Juba who have joined the regime don't have the support of their communities and they don't represent the interests of their communities but only their own. And they, as much as Kiir regime, know this. I don't think the announced Nation Dialogue will change anything, it will not bring peace or the desperately needed reconciliation among communities. Some people seem to think that this war is between politicians and not the South Sudanese people; that may be right. But those who fought, the ones that died, the ones displaced were South Sudanese. It is the people and not the politicians that need reconciliation and dialogue. The politicians will and have reconciled, the hardest task will be to reconcile communities which have seen grave abuses committed in their names to leave together again. This is a monumental task and until we truly appreciate that, we might as well not pretend to be doing much but passing time. Posted in: Opinions- See more at: http://gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ID/20145/Default.aspx#sthash.DHFYic6U.dpuf -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14orfgjxWUbAaekQU2URatzjz_arnpuSUV9_gVGvPPgXpCA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
