Radio Miraya
2822: International Day of Peace Celebration at Nyakuron Cultural Centre in Juba: The First Vice President, Riek Machar - Speech
We are rising up to welcome the guest of Hona. This excellency, Vice Vice President Dr. Yacmachar Teng, the chairperson of the government's cluster in the Republic of South Sudan. [Music] Prior to one of one Cornil O'Connor, Deputy Speaker of the Transitional National Assembly, Honorable Ministers, Honorable Special Representative of the Secretary General, your excellencies, the ambassadors, distinguished guests, Salaam Alaykum. I'm very happy and honored that I was invited to participate in this very important day, the International Day of Peace for the third time. I was there last year and the year before. It would be a big miss if one did not turn up because it is a day of reminder of how peace is cherished in the whole world and also for us here in South Sudan to remind ourselves that it is the most important value we should respect. I will not talk about the international peace. This has been tackled where we would want to have peace in Ukraine and Gaza, in Sudan, and in the rest of other countries that are now having problems either fighting each other as countries or fighting each other as members of the same country. I appreciate very much that the international community is always assisting supporting South Sudan to mug this day. Without the support, I believe it would be very difficult for the Ministry of Peace building to organize this occasion. So I want to register my appreciation for this support and I would also call upon them to continue supporting us so that we can always mug this day. Nine days ago, the 12th of September was the day when we signed the peace agreement that we are implementing today. It is now six years or six years since we signed that agreement where it is still struggling to complete its implementation. There have been statements that we have extended the life of government. We did that a week ago and finally, yesterday, this was endorsed and ratified by our legislative body. They revitalized a transitional legislative assembly. There may be misgivings to why we extended the period. Let me make some few points over this. Tomorrow, if the peace agreement was fully implemented, our government should have been or would have been dissolved by tomorrow. That is 22nd of September so that the whole country can prepare for elections. We all want the country to go for elections. But we want to see elections that is peaceful, above all peaceful, transparent, free, fair and inclusive. When we evaluated, we found that this is not going to be possible. We started dialogue a very long time, actually since March. We started to discuss this matter, whether the country would be ready to go for elections by 22nd December 2024. Some of us felt this may not be possible. And the reasons are very clear, unification of forces. We still have a bulwark of forces not unified. It would be very, very difficult to describe an election where we have multiple forces to be free, fair and peaceful. Imagine tomorrow if the government was resolved. We are complaining that the civil servants have not been paid for the last nine months. This is also the soldiers. There are also soldiers that have not been paid since 2018. They wish their colleagues being paid. And if we will let no government tomorrow, then they will say, well, the country has returned back to violence. So we saw that unification of forces has a very critical practice for the country to conduct elections. [Music] [Music] Thank you. Well, that is the first most important practice. Because the other practice is, we could play around them. One, we still have refugees from our neighboring countries in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Central Africa, DRC, and the rest of our goal to the other part of the world. One of the reasons these refugees visited to come back is because we have not completed unification of forces. So they are concerned about their security. And even those who are in Sudan, Sudan is fighting itself viciously. Despite that we have a big number of refugees even in the capital, Khartoum, from Burma, Khartoum, Khartoum, they are not moving in it. I hope, and I want to call upon them, that this is the final extension. They should come back. And I hope the UN system would help us repatriate these refugees. They are important because there will be sensors. We do not want to get into debates over which state has the bigger population. We want them to come so that they participate in their senses. And unfortunately, our law tied down the demarcation of constituencies with the population's senses. So it would be very difficult to say this state has this number of geographical constituencies. This against state should have this proportion of the woman list or in the party list. So we really would want to double our efforts to see that refugees come back. And the international community takes it up also as part of its support to the elections. We see this as an important practice. We also want to go to elections. After we have determined what our governance system is, south Sudanese since 1947, have been calling for a federal system of governance. We yet have to conduct the conference on federalism. We don't want to delay this because if you delay it and we go for elections, and this matter is not embodied in the constitution, you would still have difficulties. And I know there are groups who hell out and they took federalism as an issue on which they would want to continue political violence. We do not want to give psych groups an excuse to continue violence in this country. So we would want assistance so that we finalize this before we get to elections. Most importantly, the agreement says we must have a permanent constitution. Since last November, the body that will lead us in this process has been established. But yet they have problems. They need support. I also call on the international community support this body so that they can do their work and the time they have determined. It has among the mechanisms that have been interviewed by the high level committee, this body, the constitutional making body, they need the longest time. Without support, they might disappoint us. So I hope our partners will support this body so that they can do their work in the shortest possible time they have specified. Now having underlined this, I said it would be possible to say let's amend the transitional constitution. Yes, you can amend it and direct yourself to say let's delay the constitution. Let's delay the federalism, let's delay the census, but you can't delay unification of forces because you need to secure, you need to secure the ballot box. If you give this election security to multiphosses, you will not have the free transparent, fair, peaceful election at all. So these are the reasons why we decided it's best to extend the period for 24 months. Right-honorable concept is not for being in power, this is true. Many of us would want to see that people of South Sudan elect their leaders, elect their leaders, but then in an environment which is conducive, conducive for them to exercise their right. If we're applying them into an election which is not conducive, then we will be blamed for this because we know our people. Having stated that, I would like to respond to some of the issues that have been raised by some of these speakers. One, political space, shrinking, or civic space, you say, shrinking, civic and political space, shrinking. Many of us are in the same line with you, the speaker, whether it is Yakhani or his excellence in the ambassador representing the striker. In the executive, we had recommended that some sections of the law be scrapped, particularly 54, 55, 57, and even 13, some, some particle 15. It went to parliament, but then parliament decided the way they decided that these articles of these sections would be kept. Now there's become a problem. There's an outcry about it. I believe we will again appeal to parliament. To do us, we had recommended in government because in government we passed a resolution to spread these sections which I mentioned. Since we'll have to dialogue with them in parliament, why they thought these sections should be kept. But then now the blame comes to us in the executive. When it shouldn't be, because we had already recommended that these sections be scrapped. I believe in that without civic and political space, it would be difficult to say we have gone or we have conducted democratic, free, fair elections would be difficult. So we are conscious about that. The bills on transitional justice were happy that the parliament has passed them. What it means is for these institutions to be established. But yet there is one institution between us and the AU Commission. We need to dialogue on which is the hybrid court. According to this agreement, it says the AU Commission will provide guidelines on which legislation would be done by government. I have not seen the guidelines. And in my meetings with the ambassador of the AU, we kept talking about it. So when the guidelines are provided to the government, I believe the government will initiate the legislation. Inter-communal violence is one of the issues that we have been thinking about. If we do not have unified forces, military, police and the rest, it is difficult to disarm. So many, many, many communities are now beginning to realize that it is not worth it to arm their youth because the youth have turned these arms against themselves. Now I am happy that the rule of use has been mentioned in this forum. I hope the use now with the government together can work to persuade the arm use of this arm. It is a public order issued by the president on disarmament, but it is still difficult. We need to sensitize our use in the countryside on the importance of ensuring that peace prevails in their own communities. Yes, I can see the difficulty somewhere. As long as we have not yet completed unification of forces, that will secure them. Some of the youth say, "Well, if they disarm, what about the use in the community acts, will they not harm them?" But I believe with unification of forces and deployment of forces all over the country, they use what they have no reason to harm themselves. And cause harm to themselves. So I am hoping, and I call upon the use, to join us in the dissemination of peace, not only in the urban centers, but also in the rural areas. We need to have them understand that arming themselves is not good for the whole community and for the whole country. I am happy that women are also participating in the peace, in the peace dissemination. The last statistics I have seen say women is 54%. I hope, and I call upon them, that the only peace dissemination to men only get involved in it, because the vulnerable, the most vulnerable population is always the woman population. So your participation in it, in disseminating peace, and also disseminating about this armament of youth is important. The 10 questions with the UN provided. I think some of these questions have been answered in the cause of our dialogue with the UN, in the cause of our own dialogue among ourselves. But I cannot tell you that exhaustively these questions have been fully answered. But for us to get to elections, definitely, the time before us, the 10 questions will be answered. I want you to appreciate the difficulties that the government is in. One, the funding. If the civil population has not been paid salaries for the last 10 months, and I have been in the army, I have not been paid for more than more than six months, or the arm, the organized forces. This reflects that we have difficulties in the country. And I hope this would be appreciated by the civil population, by our citizens, and also by the international community. We now have difficulties, so the fact that war is raging is done. Since February, one of the pipelines has not been functioning. And that has created a big vacuum in our revenue, in our revenue generation. I hope it can be appreciated also, particularly by the international community. Somehow we are trying to dialogue with both parties. The army, the rapid support forces to protect vital installations. The pipelines, the refineries, because we used to get fuel from the refinery in Khartoum. We are dialoguing. We hope we will reach an agreement over that. And to a point that we felt, if the peace talks are being held in Jeddah, we should be participating. So that we persuade them to respect, by telling economic installations, not only the pipeline. The dams are there, some of the dams are now, the status of the site are not, there is no clear knowledge. Some may bust during this war if they are not. We do that because what affects Sudan affects us here in South Sudan. Now I want to come back to the implementation of the Peace Agreement, and particularly the international community. I know from the statements made by partners during the R.J. Mac, that they continue to support the tomato initiative. We have not been against the tomato initiative. We have been saying the tomato initiative should be aligned with the R axis. Because the main document that has brought peace and reality with stability in this country is the R axis. There is difficulties in implementation and particularly in funding. Now that we have extended the life of the R axis for two years, in addition to the other remaining five months, I hope the international community will reconsider the position, particularly in the support of the implementation of the R axis. The tomato is not a standalone agreement. All the protocols, we have initial and the ones waiting to initial are based on the R axis, verbatim. So since the R axis has been extended for this period of months, it would be good that we join if we are together, particularly in funding. If the international community is not confident about our instructions, particularly financial institutions, we suggest that you create your own multidunner peace fund and use which of the progress that you want to support. And I am confident that our high level committee will dialogue with you. And we hope we reach an agreement with you so that you can continue supporting the peace agreement and the peace process in South Sudan. As for the parties that have participated in the tomato initiative, we have made two resolutions in the Council of Ministers to continue dialogue with them, and time will come when this process will be when our group will, when the government will contact them, so that because we want them, we want them to join the peace process. We want them to contribute in the process because come elections, we would want to see that there are no groups that would say they have not been included. We want to have an inclusive elections, and in this we are determined that we continue the dialogue with those who participated in the tomato. And by the way, when we initiated the Rome talks, the Rome talks were initiated because most of them, they were part of their axis, but then at the last minute of signing the agreement, they did not sign. Now, with time going, they have proven that, and also with the tomato consensus, they have proven that there is nothing wrong in their axis. The other axis is a good document, and in this, since they have proven that, we would continue dialogue with them to the point that we hope they will accept to join the peace process. And also be participants in the next coming elections, coming December 2026. So we would also, one support of the international community in this, since I believe the interest is to see that all of us join the peace process and contribute to the constitutional making process in the country. Finally, I would want to thank the Ministry of Peacebuilding. This is a very important event. We should see how, but I think you have now integrated it with our own peace, the International Peace Day. There is nothing wrong with moving our peace day to the 21st of September. So we congratulate you for being very active with your partners, and we also congratulate our communities that have come. We appreciate them when we see them dancing here and showing off their cultural dances, making it particularly during a peace day like this, and I hope they would also create peace dances in their own places. I am happy that to learn from Central Equatorial, that Yay is also doing a marking this day. And I hope that the 10 states are also marking this day and the counties should also mark this day because of its importance. If we did mark all over the country, this day the peace message, the peace culture will be understood by our civil population, and particularly among the youth, particularly among the youth, because the youth should be our target so that they understand the principles of peace. I hope also you have distributed them this book, the peace agreement when they have come, when they are in the home, so that when they go back, they will help to disseminate it, because we are about 500, 500 people going with this white book and disseminating in particular the south Sudanese, I think the message shall go. I say this because this morning I was listening to a debate between political leaders in government. The questions that is thanks to Mariah, those who interacted with them, I believe did not read the peace agreement, because the questions they were asking, even someone was a professor also, the questions they were asking from ignorance of what the peace agreement means, ignorance of why it is important that unification of forces is a very important practice for conduct of elections, so that people can vote freely of why it is important to have a permanent constitution. We do not want you, some of you, most of you, south Sudan, you may not know the split of Sudan happened because of the constitutional crisis. In 1957, it was, south Sudan was promised that a federal system of governance would be applied in a federal constitution at the same time, when that was not honored, we fought until we achieved this independence. So, some may not know the importance of a permanent constitution. So, if we have the chance to have a permanent constitution, our country will be quiet because everybody will return and respect that permanent constitution. The basis of our unity, the basis of our governance. So, I hope we distribute more of this document to people, so that they know what did this peace agreement. It is not an instrument for people to keep themselves in power, it is an instrument for sustainable peace and stabilizing the country. So, I thank you very much. All those who have participated, whether as dancers or as listeners or the international community, for turning up to attend this day. Thank you very much. Thank you. That was a lengthy speech by the first vice president. Yeah, absolutely. Dr. Yachmachar Chen, he actually spoke a lot about the implementation of the committee.