Rights groups call for inclusive national dialogue in S. Sudan
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August 24, 2017 (KAMPALA) - The International Youth for Africa (IYA)
and the Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ) concluded a one-day
discussion with South Sudanese living in Kampala, Uganda to brainstorm
on a lasting peace through inclusive national dialogue.
JPEG - 26.2 kb
Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni speaks at the national dialogue launch
in South Sudan, May 22, 2017 (PPU photo)
The one-day dialogue brought together nearly 50 participants, who
included youth, women, refugees, religious leaders, civil society
groups and officials from government and the opposition forces.
IYA’s executive director, Manyang Gatwech, said organisers of the
event sought views from South Sudanese on ways how lasting peace can
be attained through a comprehensive national dialogue.
Gatwech believes the rival leaders in South Sudan have an important
task to iron out their grievances through a win-win talk.
“There is a need for both President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar to
have compromised on things that matter in South Sudan,” he said.
Several participants recommended the High-Level Revitalization Forum
initiated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as
a mechanism to bring the country’s warring parties to a common
understanding for a conducive ground for a dialogue.
Pastor Finish Mula from Zaan South Sudan Church in Kampala urged the
government to consider an inclusive national dialogue process.
“Dialogue is between two people where there is a free place to
discuss. You cannot have a dialogue with rebels within the country
when the group who fight does not have amnesty,” said Pastor Mula.
He added, “We need to find a neutral ground where religious and civil
society groups are allowed to express their views freely”.
According to Mula, any meaningful dialogue focuses on truth telling.
“For South Sudan to prosperous, we need everyone to play a good
gesture for the dialogues, including the president himself,” he said.
Daniel Juol Nhomngek, a youth activist, said the national dialogue
initiative needed to be utilized so that peace returns to South Sudan.
The national dialogue, launched in May, is both a forum and process
through which the people South Sudan shall gather to redefine the
basis of their unity as it relates to nationhood, redefine citizenship
and belonging, as well as restructure the state for national
inclusion.
Since December 2013, tens of thousands of people have been killed and
over two million displaced in South Sudan’s worst ever outbreak of
violence in the aftermath of its secession from Sudan in 2011.
(ST)
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