President Kiir’s speech on 9th July 2012

Juba – July 30, 2012

Dear comrades and fellow citizens
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,

Twenty-one days ago, we gathered here to commemorate the first anniversary of our freedom. Today we gather here in solemn memory of those who made our freedom possible. We remember the loved ones and comrades who over the course of half a century put the greater interest of our nation a head of their own lives. We all know some of their names, some of their names are known to a few and some are not known at all. We remember them equally with reverence and gratitude. We grieve for those who are no longer with us but we stand proud that their victory remains. If you look up you can see it in our flag that waves proudly among the flags of the nations. In their memory let us rise up and pay tribute to all those who died in order for us to become independent.
Thank you

Fellow citizens, today we are celebrating the second anniversary of the martyrs’ day since our independence. It is right and fitting that we take time to reflect on the sacrifices of our fallen heroes and heroines and that we renew our commitment to honor their memory. Like the thousands of candles, which are lit today in homes of South Sudanese diaspora across the world the memory of the martyrs’ lives on. We honor their memory by living up to the ideals they fought and died for- justice, liberty and prosperity. We honor their memory by continuing to fight the good fight for equality, freedom and peace among ourselves. Remembering that freedom is not an event, it is not a thing that happened one day and is over, freedom is a process and a way of life, it is something that we must continuously work for and defend.

Dear Fellow Citizens,
As a people we have endured suffering for so long, it is now time for us to become an exemplary nation for peace. There is nothing material worth the sacrifice of our martyrs but building a nation for prosperity. However a prosperous nation requires cohesion, honesty, self-sacrifice and hard work. More importantly building national consensus. It is important to note here that free and independent nations depend mostly on themselves, particularly the food that they eat. It is a moral responsibility for all of us to work hard and achieve food self-sufficiency by 2015 as I had said in my speech during our 1st year anniversary of independence. To achieve this we must have a secure environment, stable economy, and a predicable future. At the moment we have a daunting task in front of us to create such an environment. The challenge we have is to reach a peaceful agreement with our neighbor the Sudan on all the outstanding issues. The viability of our two states is of paramount importance for stability of the region. For that reason, when I was in Addis Ababa for the AU summit from the 14th-17th of this month, I took an initiative to meet President Bashir. I expressed my desire for peaceful settlement for the outstanding issues between our two sister countries. I also expressed my willingness to assist him resolve outstanding issues in Sudan’s two areas of South Kordofan and South Blue Nile. Together we agreed on a new approach that would ensure the promotion of mutual viability and peaceful coexistence of the Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, respecting the territorial integrity of each other. I gave instructions to our negotiating team to reach an agreement based on that understanding. The negotiating team presented through the AUHIP a comprehensive agreement that proposed solutions to all the outstanding issues. The Republic of South Sudan declared and honored the cessation of hostilities and has unconditionally accepted the map presented by the AUHIP for establishment of a demilitarized buffer zone. Khartoum has not accepted the map. We proposed a time bound final and binding international arbitration process to peacefully resolve the final status of the remaining contested and claimed areas along the borders. They have also rejected the idea of arbitration. On Abyei we proposed that AU and UN should organize a referendum for the people of Abyei by December this year, but they rejected that too. On oil we offered transitional financial assistance, debt relief and commercial transportation, processing and transit fees of about US $ 8.2 billion over a period of three and half years, they rejected it too. What else do we have to offer? This has not discouraged us. Our negotiating team is pushing on because we believe that dialogue is the best way. We believe in the principal of two viable states living side by side. It is my hope that President Bashir will see that and seize the opportunity for peace. We are willing to help them negotiate with SPLM-N, recognizing that SPLM-N has a political case that needs to be resolved. We need peace and we need to develop our young nation. We can only develop if we put behind us the conflict that Khartoum has imposed on us.

Dear Citizens,
I do know that we are passing through challenging moments, but we have come from far for these challenges to bog us down. We shall focus on the building of our nation and consciously ignore those things that would detract us from building our nation. The National Legislative Assembly just passed the Austerity budget. We must move forward with implementing our plans putting in mind that we need to abide by the budget and be accountable for all public funds and properties. The Audit Chambers and Anti-Corruption Commission will ensure that there would be no loopholes for people who are addicted to mishandling of public resources.

To our gallant organized forces, I call upon you to honor our fallen heroes and heroines by emulating the discipline that enabled us reach here today. The values for Justice, Liberty and Prosperity must be shown in the behavior of our forces and security organs. The respect for rights of citizens is paramount. The role of our army is to defend our sovereignty as you did in Panthou when we were threatened. The other organized forces and security organs to ensure that law and order is maintained. Criminality must stop. Those who are engaged in perpetrating suffering of our citizens and guests should be subjected to the strong arm of the law.

Dear Citizens,
Finally, as we struggled together, we must maintain unity and harmony among ourselves. There is no nation that develops or thrives promoting tribal or clan agenda. Our tribe and clan is South Sudan. The tribal conflict in Jonglei almost returned us to square one, but a combination of disarmament and peace process has yielded fruits and the people of Jonglei can now live in peace. Let this be an example and let us develop the spirit of nationhood. We should avoid rumors and tribal agitations, but rather let our tribes and cultures be a source of our pride and celebration. Together we struggled as a people, together we determined our destiny as a people and together we shall develop this country as one people. The people of South Sudan, with South Sudan being our tribe, clan and country. Let us salute our martyrs for their sacrifices have made us proud as a people of South Sudan.

Long Live our Martyrs
God bless you all.