HLRF: Will Parties Drag their Feet Once Again?
By Malith Alier, Perth, Australia
Monday, 3 September, 2018 (PW) — Last time, the parties to the violated 2015 Compromise Peace Agreement (CPA) were forced by the international community to append their signatures and implement the agreement in time to save the suffering people of South Sudan.
It’s a painful thing to be forced twice by external forces to do something you know one must do. Death, infrustructure destruction and human destitution, the three “Ds” brought about by war are nobody’s friends. War always without doubt brings human missery to the fore and halts progress for generations. That’s why it is wise to steer clear of it under any circumstances.
In our case, the quest for political power was central to the war that had caused tens of thousand lives and forced millions of people to seek refuge outside the country. Now that the external forces have once again forged the Revitalised peace agreement signed by the belligerents, the focus now turns on its implementation.
We have already noticed joking once again in Khartoum when the main opposition, the SPLM IO reluctantly signed the agreement amidst promises of farther “look in to” of contentious issues by the IGAD summit. The SPLM Leaders also known as Former Detainees have revoked their signing while two other groups of Akim Dario of PDM and Thomas Cirillo of NAS claimed they have nothing to do with the new agreement.
This joking is a sign that we may be back to the 2015 when the agreement was signed in August and pre implementation agreed to be three months from the date of signiture by the parties.
Nothing of the sort happened until well after six months when Riek Machar, the IO leader appeared in Juba in April 2016. By this time, Juba was awash with IO weapons beisdes stockpile from the government. On the 8 August the same year, the sparks flew over the seat of governemtn in the so-called J1 much closer to the sponsors of violence. What followed on that rainy day casts a long shadow over J1 and could in future turn it into a military museum. Close to three hundred soldiers lost their lieves in a matter of minutes. The IO returned to the bush once again as a consequence to fight for the power.
The two powerful men, one of whom acknowledged that he was not ready to work with the other again cannot be trusted anymore when it comes to national matters. The Donald Trump administration also branded one of them as such.
What remains to be seen is to what extend South Sudanese are tired of war. This is crucial because there are two ways to stop a war. One is victory over the enemy or a situation where no one can decisively can claim victory – a stalemate. In this case South Sudanese would tell the sponsors like Kiir, Riek or Thomas that we have had enough and if you want to continue the war do it yourselves.
If they can’t continue the war themselves, they can peacefully lay down their arms or turn them into ploughs for our own good. That time is now.
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