Radio Miraya
2844: NATIONWIDE: Peace Monitor Chief Calls for Urgent, Funded Plan from South Sudan's Extended Transitional Government
nation wide on radio mirror. Hello and good evening to you listening to nation wide. My name is Sonny Martin and you are most welcome to the first hour discussion of nation wide. Today we are going to be looking at an update on the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement of 2018. Where are we right now with the peace process and that's what we are going to be discussing as our line should open to you later on why you can call on 0 9 1 2 0 6 78 79 or 0 9 1 2 0 6 8 1 0 1 or you can also call us on 0 9 1 2 0 6 79 29 those are all our lines you can call and be part of our discussion in this evening as we look at the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement which has been extended by another two years. It has been now over a month since the parties the agreement extended the transition period by two more years despite the progress in areas such as establishing the National Election Commission. This extension was received by mixed reaction from many South Sudanese expressing that disappointment over what they see has an endless cycle of transition for the country. The slow pace of the implementation of this agreement remains a significant concern for many South Sudanese. So we ask why are we with the implementation of the essential task leading up to the December 2026 general election. I am joined this evening by the chairperson of the requested joint monitoring and evaluation commission argument major general retired child style twine ambassador you are most welcome to ready me right this evening. Thank you very much. Good evening listen us. Okay let's begin right away. There was an extraordinary argument meeting here in Juba last month at Beijing Juba Hotel. All the parties came the rumors packed and though there was some voices that never supported the extension nevertheless it was passed unanimously by majorities of the members of our gimmick and a month down the line as monitors of this peace agreement. What progress have you observed among the parties since the interim period was extended over a month ago. Thank you very much. My team for this opportunity. First of all thank you for welcoming us in the studio. DDS on 31st of October we end our project meeting which is basically monthly and this is a first meeting after the extraordinary meeting which actually conducted the extension of the agreement. This particular meeting was specifically to listen to the preparations that the our ticketing was prepared in regard to the requirement that when we completed the extraordinary meeting the our ticketing you promised that there will be people to come up with the work plans that you indicate the progress the process that they want to undertake as we move forward in the implementation. Therefore expectations in this particular meeting was that they will tempo those work plans should use to indicate exactly how we are going to progress. However this did not happen. They did not tempo any of those but the minister who attended the meeting the minister for parliamentary affairs the minister married in Hawaii. She informed us that they are actually working on these programs and these schedules and immediately after they complete working on this they will call for another extraordinary meeting to present the work plans. So we did that even on the reasons why we did not give the date of the next preliminary meeting anticipating that they'll be able to call for an extraordinary meeting as soon as possible for us to listen to the work plans that they have prepared. Okay I I want you to make it very clear to our listeners when we talk about what plan is it in line with my question of our view as monitors received any implementation of matrix to your office complete with timeline budgets and confirm the government funding so far. That's exactly what I am talking about those particular requirements we have not yet been given and this is what you asked for during our preliminary meeting and this is what the ten minister who represented the the articulate that time minister Mary said that she will be able to speak to minister Lomorro. When they are back. And then yes and then in the next meeting that they are supposed to call an extra meeting to present those work plan those plans and this is very important in us as you are concerned because right now as you may recall the roadmap and actually indicative of exactly what the process was was to happen the roadmap was very clear that they were to work on the consumer making process the unification of forces the operationalization of the legal framework and of course the election process and election we expect perhaps the roadmap this time or whatever you may want to call it will be very specific on what they want to do and you'll be very specific on the funding and what we are talking about is a demonstration of actual funding and actual implementation this time around we like to have very specific programs and schedules on exactly what's going to be done and within timelines based on for example between now and December what should be done between December and January what should be done and this is a kind of a agenda that you're going to follow as monitors to see that they fit and they are done within those timelines as we talk right now what is being implemented in the agreement right now the last time I met the minister Lomorro just before the plan and the meeting he told me that the it's food is in the kitchen that means they are preparing the work plans and therefore they it's not yet been cooked and as soon as they complete then they will go to serve the food so this external meeting will be the time they will be serving the food telling us exactly what they are they're supposed to do but meanwhile I must say that every minute is important regardless of whether we are waiting for for January or February 2025 to start the two years this particular period between now and then there is a lot of things that can be done and this has been what you've been insisting on that you like to see progress in issues that even do not require funding for example the issues regarding the middle level unification of forces is a matter of one decision by the leadership it doesn't require any funding their preparation themselves do not require funding even these work plans that are supposed to be teams to sit down and work on them they don't require plans yeah but what we know right now is that actually all the mechanisms like the implementation mechanisms on legal and political issues the national action commission the national council review commission and even the political parties cancel they have already completed their plans and they have already actually even budgeted for their plans or what they are waiting for is for funding for example the national council review commission states that they have the complete plan on how they intend to work and they are just waiting for the day they receive the funds that becomes their d-day and they start working and within a time frame that they are given they will go to the river okay and right now what are some of the most critical tasks that the parties need to implement or complete before the start of the near interim period on the 22nd of February 2025 next year one of the things that we we know first of all the Minister Minister Lomoro stated that this particular time they will be looking for funds but he also stated that they have agreed now that they need to look for even they find some of the funds that go elsewhere for example that funds that go to the maybe the infrastructure or the road construction to be geared towards the implementation of the agreement because what is important for the transition government is to implement the agreement and therefore to us now we are waiting to see that particular you know ask action in terms of the diversion or the real preparation for this funding to be forecasted the implementation of the agreement second also we would expect by probably a Christmas gift for thousands of these people that at least those issues that do not require funding even like I just said the invocation of this middle level can be completed we should be able to see actions going on in terms of even the initial preparations of even the the frameworks of the constitution making I know the the right now there has been preparations on what to outcode just the the preparations for the for the fundamental requirements like office setting setting the the requirement the infrastructure required for for was starting the National Election Commission works and also the National Security Review Commission works that is going on and the there's a bit of work that they have done with the funding that they have been given for the UNDP but nevertheless the fact that the Minister stated clearly that they have to inject funding as a show of sorry as a show of or a demonstration of political will and believe that this time around we're going to have this agreement implemented this is what you are waiting that the breakthrough is very critical and this is what you're waiting to see and talking about chapter two of the agreement which is the security arrangement which is very critical as always mentioned by the parties to the agreement where are we right now the unification of the necessary unified forces this is a huge problem in as far as I would want to say right now because right from the onset we were expecting by this time we have started the issues of the phase two of the of the training and even the taking the forces to the tournament for selection and going to training but all what we are hearing is the preparations for that but you've not seen any action in regard to that direction obviously the matter that is on the table now is to see the probability of funding on this direction I know of course the issue regarding the this particular phase two is a huge challenge in terms of taking these fellows to the these soldiers to the to the concentration concentration places comes to be able now to be moved the training areas there is problems of even some of some of the training comes to a set previously they have now been flooded so there are challenges of that nature some of the camps that were set early and because of long delay of taking the forces there they are completely now destroyed or deleted therefore it requires funding and this basically that's why the issue of funding is critical in this process and that challenge of course is DDR as you know the DDR has never been funded since the establishment of the commission and again as you know with this kind of a setup where the troops need to be taken to training areas and to be selected those who are not eligible for training they will need to be taken care of and the only way they can be taken care of is to have DDR programs in whichever way to be able to either be taken to the training for DDR or even to be maybe taken to wherever place or they may be taken in terms of ensuring they are absorbed to other places and these now are the plans that you are saying that if you speak to them to the chair of the commission of DDR Commission you say that all the plans are there but they are waiting funding. If the parties are to conduct or if elections have to be done or conducted in December 2826 what is required by the parties right now to meet that threshold? The critical issue that we've actually been talking about is we need to see political will on this parties we need to see them having a sense of agency because two years average of time anyway we need to see the parties for example beginning to arrange for the registration we want to see the parties beginning to plan or now they intend to establish themselves we need to see activities regarding the registration of photos we need to see focus on even think about the delineation of the constituencies as you know also those are need to be taken to be thought about and also more importantly these elections if they have to be conducted in accordance to the roadmap or in accordance to the extension requirements then they need to think about the new constitution and the new constitution means that the works for the constitution framework need to start immediately because it is the constitution that you will determine the kind of election that will be undertaken because the law says that once a constitution is completed the national election role will have been reviewed to conform to the new constitution which means a constitution has to be completed and if you look at the mathematics of calculation the constitution was supposed to take 18 months six months ahead is the period that is left to to review the law and eventually conduct elections and during your last plan remaining last week on the 31st of last month the chairperson of the NCRC said that they are planning to launch a nationwide civic education on the constitution making process but it was complaining about baguette constraint what do you think can be done to support his idea so that people can be engaged at all levels in the country one of the issues that we have been advocating right now is that we want to have a different approach this time we want this idea of of this extension to be taken differently we want to see different approach in regard to this implementation and one way of doing is that first of all want to see a serious and deliberate demonstration of support by the government that has to be seen secondly also we have appeared also to the regional states and even international community to see the possibility of funding specific implementing mechanisms for example focusing on like assisting in the constitution making process or assisting in the national action process or assisting in the CTRH directly it's the kind of message that we are setting out there that even as as regional countries and even as international community we like to see them also reacting differently this time rather than all the time maybe complaining about inability for South Sudan to really implement the agreement we also like each one of us to have a commitment on this on this side differently but more importantly we want to see leadership in terms of the South Sudan also leading the way if it is implementation if it is funding we would like to see them put funding some of these processes and then you get support but it's very difficult to seek for support when you are not even beginning to see that you can be able to put some little coin into it and if you recall even under chapter three where they were talking about the the special construction fund which was actually supposed to remain this agreement the idea of the framers of this agreement was that if South Sudan would contribute a hundred million dollars into the city they'll that you attract in international conference a punching conference and this is basically what has not happened at all because this was disregarded but these are some of the things that have actually delayed this implementation of this agreement there was good will 2019 2020 2021 2022 that time there was no Gaza war there was no Ukraine war there was no Sudan war and the world was focusing or focused to help South Sudan yeah to be lost on opportunity now ambassador just takes me to the another thinking that this pledging conference we are talking about should have happened a long time ago but conflict in Sudan there was a donor conference a lot of funds were pledged just the recent one where France hosted this donor conference to support the elements war a lot of money were pledged why is it very difficult for this conference to happen because for South Sudan case because it is South Sudan who are supposed to be to to to to commence it it has to start from the country it is South Sudan who are supposed to to initiate this process it can't be initiated by everyone even on else except South Sudan I know even there was the the plan to conference for Somalia yeah when I was actually there working as a force commander of the amissom forces there was a plenty conference in London for the South Sudan for the Sudan for the Somalia transition plans and it's a it's a it's a country it's a country that's supposed to initiate these processes and the international community will be willing and of course you have to show by action by commenting some commitment by putting some funding into the kitty okay and in your view you have been meeting this parties on a daily basis you have meetings there monthly you meet the first vice president you meet the speakers you meet all this people you interacted all the parties to the agreement in your own view as a monitor are they parties demonstrating the spirit of collaboration necessary to fulfill the remaining obligation in the agreement well I must say there has been a first of all let us look from the perspective of where we are and where we have come from I think if you look at previously there were a lot of challenges of even agreeing on some issues but as I said now you can say that we have seen even the government is there we have seen actually parliament registering and done a lot of work in the registration we have seen the cabinet meetings they have been able to make to meet and make decisions we have seen recently like the cooperation that they had on the extension uh virtually everyone was committed this extension what we are saying they say it supports their ideas what we are saying want that commitment to be extended the implementation of the agreement if there is a commitment to meet to extend the agreement why there cannot be the same commitment to implement the same agreement it isn't right to remain in perpetuity in a transition and it is important that we have these elections conducted by December 2026 and that way the country will win the confidence of the international community the confidence of the region there will be a legitimate elected government in South Sudan even for the comfort of the leadership that is what should be driving everyone going forward in this country and and it is for the good of the countries for the good everyone it's for the good of the legitimacy of the government but more importantly for us to get there let us have a constitution because it is a constitution that the people of South Sudan are talking about they want to be able to have a people led constitution to make a decision on how they want to be led but if you have elections without the new constitution then you not have fact and the very critical requirement of the people of South Sudan yes if you have just joined us right now you're listening to nation-wide my name is Sani Matriya coming to life from Juba and this evening I have with me in the studio here I'm Basra Charles Tagitwei the Chairperson of the Argemic and we are discussing more about the current status of the peace agreement and you have heard from him up to now as the monitors have not received the implementation matrix with complete timeline budget and confirmed government funding they said they're still cooking and they are saying that very soon maybe they will call for an extraordinary argument meeting where all these things will be presented to them you can call us on 091 206 78 79 or 091 206 79 29 or you can call us again on another number which is a 091 206 8 101 those are all our lines you can call and be part of our discussion this evening yes hello hello your name okay it seems to be having some network problem you can still call us on the same number hello ready me right hello okay we have discussion coming in via our SMS number this one is coming from Jackson in Juba and he says as citizens we think nothing is being implemented at the moment right now are we right to think that way as a monitor as from Jackson here in Juba another SMS is coming a ambassador could you update us about the status of the constitution making process because that's our main focus you can't go for election without a permanent constitution that's coming from then here in Juba what can the government do and the partners to raise money to fund this critical task has implemented as enshrined in the agreement this is coming in from Medio in coming here in Juba yes ambassador yeah thank you first of all the there is first of all in terms of preparation for the extension I think I've already mentioned the the government's position or reaction that they are preparing these work plans I want to believe that this is something that should be done as quickly as possible indeed it is actually a month almost I think the extension also yeah it's not over a month in nearly two weeks correct so I think it is too much time that this should have been completed our concerns is that we do not want this kind of business as usual reaction we want a sense of agency we want to see demonstration of seriousness this time indeed yes the question of the commitment for the leadership here is very important and again as I have just said again this is not a very long time two years a very short time and considering what is supposed to be done there is a lot of work that need to be done and every day is critical and therefore if it is funding that is a challenge there must be strategies on how to to fund I say that you can only attract international support if only you show by yourself that you are putting something in the kitty and what we are expecting is to see what then will be put from this also the needs leadership itself how much or whatever the concerns that they may have in regard to how they focus and implement those specific work plans that you are waiting for so the time that we receive these work plans and very specific plans or now they will be funded I think this is what you are waiting in terms of the consumer making process I think I've said that there has been some work that has been done initially in terms of preparation and ground work for the consumer making process I also say that the chair of the National Consumer Review Commission briefed the RJ MEC planner meeting and he said that he has prepared all the work plans he has a budget and he is ready to work he is only waiting for money okay yes you can see colors on 0 9 1 2 0 6 7 8 7 9 hello hello okay I think we seem to be having some network problem you can still keep calling on the same number 0 9 1 2 0 6 7 8 7 9 and be part of our discussion right here hello hello okay turning on to our SMS number we have this this one here coming from then listen ambassador is it possible to conduct election without people being counted he's talking about sensors here that's coming from then listen in Monique here in Cuba another SMS here is coming in what what is as a monitor what is the major problem is to watch after two of the agreement is not being it's not moving forward that's from Nicholas in Juba also that's these two questions starting with the first question regarding the conduct of elections without the sensors first of all the agreement says that the sensors shall be conducted during the transition period it doesn't necessarily it doesn't necessarily connect the elections with the sensors and therefore it is not an agreement requirement but in terms of first of all it is a very expensive process anyway and if you are talking about conducting sensors at the same time of conducting elections I think this is something that the leadership needs to think about and this is what you are saying about if we are focused in the election December 2026 we also need to develop priorities priorities that you help to know what are the critical requirements that you have passed rich that you help us reach the election time without delay and if sensors is one of those that you delay elections then it can be done post-election sensors usually is for the economic development really but I know perhaps the thinking here is that this country became independent from the Sudan and it is the challenges of exactly establishing even the constituents that they may need to have for example the new law the new election law if you look at the mathematics of it is that the elective posts are about 158 of course 332 but if you do the mathematics find that the elective posts are at 1958 and I understand that the constituencies that are there in the old law were 102 which means there is a gap of about 56 constituencies that I mean there are 56 members of parliament would be elected but there are no constituents for them so they are willing for some delimitation of the constituencies maybe that could be where those who are propagating for the for the sensors are coming from yeah but nevertheless that can be done differently if you really want to reduce the time and reduce the expenditure and have elections done within the time frame so I think this is something that can be considered by by those who are actually particularly the National Election Commission and also the the National Bureau of Statistics as they work on these things together okay there was this question of should the South Sudanese believe that nothing is being implemented at the moment well I don't speak for South Sudan government but I want to believe that as a monitor what we have seen is that as I have said they have we are actually what is important now is the the tippling of these work plans yeah the extraordinary meeting what do you want to push now is to how quickly is this meeting going to be called as soon as we settle down on these issues I think in the next one week or so we should be able to ask where are we going going forward where is this that we want to see this happening but I want to appeal to the leadership here that indeed the everyone in this country the people of South Sudan be both here in South Sudan and abroad the international community and even in the region they want to see a changed approach on this implementation we've had two years of the roadmap and yet there was little if any that was achieved we want to see that these two years are not wasted again and we come to November 2026 and we are hearing now election this can be very very difficult for people to agree or to understand and also be very difficult for Arabic even to to to vote already we have had a problem of like the western world some of them call them the 14 and this is not going to argue well if we continue having this continuous petuity of extensions without end so I want to appeal to the leadership that this time around they need to be very serious they need we need to have elections the world is watching the way we react here in this country everyone is trying to assess what is it that is happening that we are not able to move forward what are those issues that cannot be resolved if the issues of the political will why is it that you cannot unlock those challenges and be able to address them if it is trust deficit we have been together for six years now in this uh in this uh uh transition period why have you been able to move forward in terms of reconciliation and the healing okay and be able to move forward all right our lines are still open you can call hello ready mirror hello yes good evening thank you very much and i'm good evening to the guests in this video yes a good evening to your name and react to your own home in forgot area okay go ahead and i'm glad to have uh the reconferturity to put a time in this video about your marriage this evening okay your question please i have a question to him during the time of post was more high they were serious serious after the peace agreement of this country oh please not be made then this island with the government then the government uh bank have a right time to defend it and they are silent did they have a role to protect the government by saying that ABCD is good man okay thank you so much uh Andrea Camilo from western barakas that's it hello okay we have the same question more or less like the one of Andrea Camilo it says um the last time ambassador you came to ready mirror studio you said that you are all is only to monitor and report to your bosses above you why uh you are boss is so quiet up now without uh coming up with any later maybe putting pressure on the government on the parties to implement the agreement why is the eager division so quiet is there something going behind the cameras we are not being told this is coming from uh johnson in juba well uh first of all we are not quiet i think it is important to understand that a lot of work that you do has contributed a lot even to what we are now and where we have reached of course some of the things you do are not basically public some of the things you do like engagement with the government here engagement with regional leaders is not public we have you know to like for example i can tell you we have been able even to engage like uh south african president when he came here we end up with a brief team we brief hands of state to come here we we talked to them we have been touring the region we have met a lot of leaders out there we have also been able to brief the u_n_ piece of serious cancel and so many other things that we do what happens is that uh all these briefs that we do uh are important because they informs the policy decision on south udon from that perspective uh the pressure that we put to the government is purely based on the the mandate level and it is important to know that we do not just write reports we also engage in uh resolving deadlocks like for example many a times when the parties have been having challenges you have been involved in trying to unlock those deadlocks when for example the eye walked out of parliament you are responsible to ensure that uh what uh the we negotiate we speak to them and we agree to have them move into the back of the parliament in the recent moment when the government i.g. declared is going to conduct elections executive elections you remember recently when the campaigns were going on and the endorsement of the president there was of course that time when the i.g. said that's going to vote for elections that uh basically executive and the IO rejected that and there was some kind of a deadlock in that and we had to intervene ourselves i wrote the leadership and we were able to have the leadership come up with the interpatelo and it is that interpatelo that actually brought about the issue of the the meeting that brought about even the discussion and the evaluation of the roadmap towards getting the the the now the current extension so we basically get a lot of uh you know we do a lot of work we engage EGAD at the level of the chair uh the level of the executive secretary and also we uh we also engage the regional leaders uh at the level of the president president uh ruto president uh mousseveni we have been engaging them in different ways and through that of course they engage the leadership it may not be very feasible to the to the people here but there's a lot of work that we do that has helped us reach where we have reached the issue of the implementation of the agreement is the role of the government of susardan aratikinu is responsible for implementation of the agreement and the the that is their mandate and they know that this is a transition government and that transition government is not elected it's opposed to media for a specific time and therefore it is not even a question of controlling or even putting pressure it's a question of the political will by the leaders and they know very knowing very well that this is their responsibility and they have an obligation to implement the agreement because these agreements are transformative document that you move this country to next level and that is leadership so basically it is a leader as susardan was supposed to really appreciate that this agreement has all the requirement that is supposed to do within a time frame to be able to get these countries to the next level okay and uh right now uh sections of the international community are very skeptical about this extension like the troika the uk the us and norweh the last week uh the issue the statement expressing profound disappointment with the development and saying they are considering the future approach how does this kind of a statement impact on the peace process moving forward well it is not even both the international community or the troika for that matter it is the feeling of everyone that there is need to see change in the way this agreement is being permitted you keep saying that how do you think what how do you think this a change of ways should be done could you elaborate on that because now uh you have repeated this statement more than three times now during this last uh 40 minutes i want to say that uh we the arctic you know as a presidency as a cabinet it is them who are supposed to sit down and they say look we need to move forward there is a the committee they are calling the the the the the the the the the the the the implementation the high level international committee yeah there is ntc we're supposed to provide the funding there's a high level implemented committee these are the ones are supposed to sit and have a program of day-to-day program for now we are going to move forward to implement in the agreement one thing i want to say here very clearly the agreement implementation is a factor of the leadership and this is one thing that this government should be focused on it did the government supposed to implement this agreement have a new constitution go for elections have a new government that's elected that's proceed on the on the on the development of the country so ideally this government's focus is mainly actually agreement implementation it is a fast government transition government whose role is to implement the agreement and to suppose to do this in three years implement this agreement deal with issues of the constitution making processes CTRH uh uh transition justice issues unify the forces that that is why that government of six hundred six hundred members of parliament with that five cabinet with the five vice president supposed to implement this agreement as the unified transition government finish the implementation for deliver a constitution then forget and get for elections based on the constitution that people have agreed that's how they want to be led that's why i say you you have you cannot put you know a pistol on their head yeah they are the ones supposed to know this is our our application it is our responsibility we have this responsibility for the two of sausudan to deliver this particular requirement and that's why we are saying we are here to monitor and keep on reminding and telling them look you have an application we are chapter seven of the agreement as our game it so six chapters for implementation we want to see you do as you monitor as to supervise to oversee the your implementation so the part stops on the leadership of sausudan they head of the european union to sausudan during your uh uh president meeting last week say that it's not all about funding there's money but it's all about lack of political will and the agreement talks about working in equality uh how can the parties has your normal medium how can they cultivate this uh political will in order to move things forward so that we get out of this endless cycle of our transition all the time this is a factor of uh first of all pragmatism whereby the leaders will go to say look we have come from far we have made so many uh we have been together we have cornered we have and all these problems all through but this time we now want to to to change the way we do things we want to be pragmatic and we want to be able to make the next step so that we can move forward it is purely a question of uh big magnanimous and say that look now this time around we want to make a step remember Nelson Mandela some stage he said I have suffered for 27 years I have forgiven but I have not forgotten let us move forward we need those kind of pragmatism here so that we see let us move forward let us forget the past let's forget all the myths the use of all the mistakes all the things that we have done to each other and they move forward for the sake of the country so as we conclude our discussion that these evening people who sit in the states listening to us here they don't have much hope because the suffering they're going through is too much the economic crisis in the country is biting everybody a common man can no longer buy above stop he used to buy those days at two thousands three thousands now more than five thousand uh and the parties keeps dragging here and there so as monitors what is your recommendation to the parties this evening as we move forward our recommendation to the parties is first for to really sit and think about this very important process that things cannot be the same that you cannot be business as you show it has been six years now the world is getting tired the international community is longer having faith and trust so how do you change that you can only change that if you take a deliberate step and demonstrate that this time around we are going to do things differently and this has been our our mantra that let us see things being done differently let us see new energies let us see this kind of shared values to ensure that this country moves forward let us see purchasing let us see nationalism let us see the leaders now turning a new page saying this time around we want to deliver and this is what we are telling the leaders now that take it differently do not take things from granted do not assume now you have an extra two years and that you can just remain the same way you have been things have to change and this is what you want going forward thank you so much ambassador child's tag it was the chairperson of our argument for coming to astute this evening we appreciate the time so much thank you very much thank you very much