IGAD’s Revitalization Forum on South Sudan is a hoax
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July 25, 2017
The Nuer Supreme Council (NSC) would like to take this opportunity to
declare that Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is no
longer a credible peace broker in South Sudan, but rather, a sham and
hallowed financial profiteering institution driven by IGAD’s nation
States political and financial gains.
The recent IGAD)’s High Level Revitalization Forum on South Sudan is a
Hoax, Deeply Flawed and Driven by Financial Gains. This is showcased
by IGAD’s position on the SPLM/A-IO, the main opposition armed
Movement in South Sudan.
Due to IGAD’s deeply flawed and monies driven position on the South
Sudan peace, the Council demands that IGAD relinquishes its mandate on
the South Sudan Peace Agreement to the African Union.
The IGAD’s approach going about with the High Level Revitalization
Forum is not genuine. The Revitalization Forum is highly selective,
ill-conceived and we believe such a method will fail.
Thus, the Council agreed that IGAD’s approach is “exclusionary
initiative” and only meant to prolong the war efforts and suffering of
the people of South Sudanese, while IGAD’s member States
representatives continued to get their paychecks in the name of
unachievable peace.
To recap, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is an
East African regional bloc, mandated by the African Union (AU) in 2013
to oversee and mediate the peace negotiation efforts in South Sudan.
IGAD is supposed to be non-partisan, genuinely honest and objective in
all its approaches.
IGAD came to such a prominent position when President Salva Kiir
falsified a coup d’état against his own Government, and then, mass
murder 20, 000 innocent Nuer civilians, which then caused the civil
war. IGAD was entrusted with responsibility to bring the warring
parties to the negotiation table.
Despite the murderous nature of the political problem in South Sudan,
the East African’s leaders and the African Union maintained that the
path to peace in South Susan be an African driven approach meaning -
“Africans’ solutions to Africans’ problems”.
The intent was to deny the international community’s involvement and
influences on what African’ leaders called “Africa’s state of
affairs”. The international community accepted the proposal in
principle to avoid a false accusation of imperialism or neocolonialism
intent by the West in Africa in the 21st century.
However, with this African’ driven approach, of Africans’ solutions to
Africans’ problems, the problem arose on the financing. The African
nation States are bankrupt and lack financial muscles to ensure
ownership in the process and also to guarantee that the method is
indeed for Africans, by Africans and on the African continent.
Instead, the Africa’s nation States particularly the IGAD asked for
financial supports from the West, particularly the Troika (USA, United
Kingdoms and Norway), EU and China to help facilitates the peace
process in South Sudan.
These contradictions created a setback on the Africans’ solutions to
Africans’ problems objective. In reverse, it created financial
dependency. This financial dependency turned IGAD a beggar and
hallowed financial profiteering institution meant to benefit no one
but themselves. Today, the Council can state this with a straight face
that IGAD is a sham and hallowed financial profiteering institution.
With resounding confidence, the Council declared that the High Level
Revitalization Forum aimed to revive peace in the South Sudan is a
scum and subject to failure.
The initiative is nothing but a mockery and grossly incompatible to
the 2015 failed Peace Agreement. For example, in 2015, IGAD patched a
weak Peace Accord on South Sudan. IGAD did not and still not
protecting any peace accord in South Sudan. Its failure in protecting
the signed accord add to IGAD’s lack of sincerity and commitments.
Therefore, the Council concluded that IGAD can no longer be trusted.
It motivation on South Sudan peace is financially driven and not a
genuine search for peace.
The weak Peace Accord broker by IGAD for South Sudan collapsed on July
8th, 2016 and IGAD failed to hold to account the violators. Instead,
IGAD continued with deafening silence even though people were dying
and being displaced in their thousands all-over South Sudan.
Due to the deadly nature of the war, those whose intentions were to
achieve genuine peace for South Sudan called for peaceful
revitalization process through political means. Sadly, IGAD’s nation
States blatantly refused and claimed that the Peace Agreement was
intact and being implemented.
Of late, IGAD subtly acknowledged that the peace agreement on South
Sudan has collapsed and required a political revitalization process.
In June 2017, IGAD tabled the High Level Revitalization Forum and
subsequently followed by the timeline.
The High Level Revitalization Forum aims to revitalize the collapsed
Peace Agreement on South Sudan. To achieve this objective, IGAD has
initially declared that the process will be inclusive. All the warring
parties and other oppositions would be involved including the
estranged groups. IGAD also stressed that all would be engage in a
transparent process.
The Council and the world at large were delighted and endorsed the
IGAD’s initiative and change of heart without second guess that IGAD’s
initiative could be a financial scam and deeply flawed. We lauded the
IGAD’s nation States for such a decisive move at the eleven hours
after a year of deafening silence on South Sudan.
To everyone surprise, the IGAD Executive Council, Workneh Gebeyhu of
Ethiopia had this to say on July 24, 2017 in Juba, South Sudan:
"revitalization forum is not a fresh negotiation or a renegotiation to
implement the agreement, but rather an opportunity for all South Sudan
stakeholders to return to the implementation of the peace agreement."
First, the Council would like to reinstate that the peace in South
Sudan has collapsed and there is no peace agreement to be implemented
by all South Sudan stakeholders. Instead, there is a raging war in the
country. In our view, the first attempt must be to stop the war before
IGAD’s rubbish talks of implementation of the peace agreement that
does not exist.
Second, for IGAD to say that “Dr. Machar will be allowed to send
representatives to the Revitalisation forum which is due in September,
but will not be allowed to attend the forum by himself” is deeply
troubling and irresponsible.
With that statement, the Council believe that IGAD nation States has
killed their initiative, the High Level Revitalization Forum and we
think this was not accidental but IGAD’s intention in the first place.
Similarly, with this position, we suspect that IGAD has secured some
financial supports for the initiative which the donors have no way of
reclaiming.
Third, it’s improbable to think and talk of peace in South Sudan when
the SPLM/A –IO’s top leadership is excluded in the High Level
Revitalization Forum. It must be noted with clarity, that the
SPLM/A-IO is the main signatory to the Peace Agreement which is
falsely claiming to be revitalized and the only armed force on the
ground fighting Salva Kiir’s forces in South Sudan.
Their exclusion by the IGAD in the High Level Revitalization Forum
means no peace and no genuine High Level Revitalization Forum for all
South Sudanese, which is what IGAD wants. Another IGAD’s intention is
continued financial gains which we precisely believe to be a financial
profiteering in the name of South Sudan’ peace.
Fourth, IGAD cannot call for an inclusive forum for all South Sudan
stakeholders and yet denied the SPLM/A-IO’s top leadership
participation in the form. This is hypocrisy and true conduct of a
financial profiteering institution.
In closing, it’s fitting to say that the High Level Revitalization
Forum was a hoax and meant to lure in Western Governments to fetch-in
financial supports to benefit IGAD’s Nation States. The IGAD’s High
Level Revitalization Forum is not genuine. It’s a sham and whose
objective is to racketeer in the name of suffering people of South
Sudan.
Therefore, the Council call on the African Union to take-over the
South Sudan’s peace portfolio from IGAD.
The Council also call on the Western countries, particularly the
Troika, EU and other International bodies to defund the High Level
Revitalization Forum under IGAD.
The Council asked the Troika, EU and other International bodies to
only fund genuine and inclusive initiative whose goal is to bring
lasting peace to South Sudan under the African Union.
The Nuer Supreme Council is an independent think tank, whose objective
is to advance peace, research and bottom-up development in the rural
South Sudan. The Council is also an advocate for fair treatment and
equal representation of all South Sudanese in the South Sudan state of
affairs.
J. Nguen is the Chairman of the Nuer Supreme Council. He can be
reached at [email protected]
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