President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar’s assignment after Peace Celebration Event
6 min readBy Yach Atiop Yach, Juba, South Sudan
Saturday, October 22, 2018 (PW) — Believe it or not, peace echoes are around the corners. Like President Salva Kiir said in Jeff Koinange of Kenya Citizen TV interview few days ago and I quote “A person bitten by snake will always fear a string when he/she sees it. It is true that South Sudanese are skeptic of the current revitalized peace agreement and will always jump up when they hear of any peace deal, as some will see it like the snake referred by the president.
But never lose hope in search for peace in this country. There are many hopes that may work out so well this time. One of the hopes is that, there will be no competing armies that will back up the oppositions. Therefore the incoming oppositions will be walking on a tight rope knowing that they have no strengths to rely on once the door has been shut for them after formation of the government in the first quarter of 2019.
All South Sudanese wherever they are being in PoCs country wide, in their homes, or Refugees in the neighboring countries are suffering and one of the major causes of suffering is shortage of food they rely on. So each of these people need peace so that those in the PoCs move out so that they can go and cultivate their farmyards during the next planting season.
Those who are lucky to be in their homes are facing food shortages due to crops failures and insecurity that don’t allow them to farm far from their huts.
Those in the neighboring countries as refugees are seen demonstrating due to food ratios being slashed to few kilos per individual. If you look at all these crises, they arose as results of political turmoil in the country, which resulted, to unprecedented sufferings of ordinary masses.
Majority of those facing the pinch of the war are women, children and the elderly. Those who are working in the UNMISS and NGOs cannot manage to afford the needs of their dependents as their incomes is overstrained.
Some of us are aware that the current situation in South Sudan is aggravated by the Western Powers who want to control the country and her resources leave alone our neighboring countries. These Western countries have different interests in South Sudan and if their interests are not balanced, we will continue to make our people suffer in big numbers and in lengthy.
Any influenced and compromised leader will see it as democracy or defending sovereignty but being driven by those interests of these western Countries.
Therefore, President Kiir, Dr. Riek and their advisors need to sit together during the Pre- Transitional Period, particularly, I am urging President Kiir to sit down with Dr. Riek and ask him what he thinks of balancing the presences of USA, China, Russia and the Europeans in South Sudan.
I am sure Dr. Riek will provide suggestions that I probably think President Kiir never had before and the same way President Kiir will provide suggestions that Dr. Riek never have and these suggestions and recommendations will form the basis of consolidating peace in South Sudan they will use them to treat these foreign influencers in the country.
It is not too late for them to do it, since we have seen commitments from the two leaders to work together again. Leaders agree to disagree and vice versa. We have seen and read from the past when Dr. Riek disagreed with Dr. John on the modalities of achieving South Sudan.
Dr. Riek idea was to achieve South Sudan through agenda of Independent South Sudan through Southern Sudan Independent Movement (SSIM), meanwhile the idea of Dr. Garang was to advocate for the unity of whole Sudan with provisions of separation if the checklists for a United Sudan are not met.
Dr. Riek tried his best to get what he wanted but never succeed but when Dr. Garang evaluated the brain of his opponents and combined with his, they sat, reconciled and in 2002, they reunited and started the CPA negotiations together as unified body and eventually succeed in getting the today South Sudan. I am very sure both leaders have different views on how each of them perceived these Western countries and their influences in South Sudan.
It is unless they consolidates their stands and stop support to them in parallel, Unless they stop these supports, they will continue to be rivals and suffering of South Sudanese will not come to an end. We all grew up knowing the United States of America and the European Union through the humanitarian aids deliveries.
Therefore, it is a common believe that America and the Europeans were behind the independence of South Sudan. Now they are the angry lions in the jungles. Meanwhile the Chinese were on the other hand were working for our oppressors where some of the Europeans and the American were working in favor of the oppressed.
Just after the independences, we saw the goal posts shifted and now the start of the mess. Our situation is clear to whom we should bring in our affairs as a country. I am not in support of taking one, but advocate for balancing their presence. We have enormous resources and we have many states being 10 plus Abyei or 32 and Abyei inclusive.
Mr. President and Mr. Riek sit down with your advisors and draft a formula and divided these powers in to those states where we have resources and we shall be free of gunshots and hunger. They will be happy enjoying what each deserve, like a man who has married 5 wives in which he has resources to sustain each of them. None of the other wife attacks the other one because she gets what she deserve from the same man.
Therefore, consider America, China, Russia, Europeans and our neighboring countries as co-wives in the management of South Sudan. If we don’t satisfy these people, we will continue to kill our people for the cause we can solve in one cabinet sitting.
Yach Atiop Yach is a humanitarian Aid worker base in South Sudan. He can be reached at yachatiop@yahoo.com
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