Radio Miraya
2735: Nairobi Peace Talks: Ongoing consultations will determine structure and agenda of negotiations
Let's get to find out whether there's some sticking points from a Joffrey Lord Duke who is a Delegate of South Sudan civil society forum for this mediation here in Nairobi. Good morning Joffrey and thank you so much for joining us in our conversation this morning. Good morning Sony and thanks for having me. So first tell us your general overview of the last four days because after the launch last week at the State Housing in Nairobi on Friday the talks started right away on Saturday we had a discussion yesterday on Monday there was discussion and now they still discuss on going on corridors and general overview on what has transpired so far. So since the commencement of the talks the first item was pre-tops consultations on the key themes that the negotiations settled and those are security sector reform, justice, governance and economy. So they wanted to get a rough idea of the key issues around these themes so that it could shape the agenda of the negotiations. So when if the talks have been formally launched on Thursday until yesterday was simply a continuation of the pre-tox consultations. So that means the real discussion or the negotiation of not to get started. Negotiations have not yet started and it's going to start after these round of consultations with the various delegations is complete and hopefully we might begin tomorrow but that depends on the emerging issues and how you know they have been handled by both the mediation and the respective parties. So what is your role as the delegates of South Sudan civil society forum in these pre-tox as you describe it at the moment? Well just like any of the other delegations we presented our initial submissions on these four topics highlighting the key concerns for example in the field of security what do we think are the key security concerns in terms of everyday security of citizens and then in terms of the broader long-term you know security sector reform and then we offer initial recommendations on how this should be addressed and that is a similar approach to the four other topics. So those initial submissions as opposed to shape the agenda of the actual negotiations and one thing that we are currently doing is that we are helping with pulling together all the issues that have emerged from the different presentations but in different parties. So this is to help the process with having one single negotiation text. Have you seen any commitment from both sides right now? Well since the beginning of the talks we have seen you know a different kind of energy which is more positive than you know what we see on the media the exchange of words about dogs are we coming we're not coming oh this is just a waste of time oh no this is very serious. So now having interacted with them and having seen them interact I can tell that this period is more is warmer and it you know gives us hope that if they continue to work in a friendly fashion in the spirit of the some comrades hopefully will reach an agreement soon but I would like to highlight one particular thing that I think should depict hope which is the message that the president delivered to the parties when they held closed door meeting at the State House. Fantastic yes we are all out there waiting for you know for them to come out and maybe announce something. Of course when they came out there wasn't anything particular but what we came to find out is that the president gave them a very you know a clear guidelines on how to proceed with this process and it applies to both the government and their opposition groups and one thing that the president said is that you are here to discuss how to rescue the country and take it out from where we have brought it which is the current status of this security in South Sudan and everyone can agree that we are in a really really deep pool. Yeah and the president is clear that the job of the primary goal of the both sides is here to discuss and find a way of how to rescue the country from where they have taken it and asked in the civil society we are to help them in that endeavor. Yeah we have had that also from Dr. Serena he told me that that was the message from the president that they bought a sunk so please try to pull the boat out but even when I was talking to my colleague Erin Lassa this morning on the Mira breakfast show she told me that one of the major concerns of every South Sudan is at the moment is that whatever is agreed here when they go back to do by implementation becomes very difficult there is a lack of political will like you said a lack of international support and regional support there's no money we are in the economic crisis why there's high-p high inflation what is being is there anything being discussed around mechanism of implementing whatever will be agreed here in Irodi well the other message that the president delivered was that you might not have the solutions but the delegates here are well placed to find solutions for the crisis in the country and he told them that whatever you agree to bring peace this also done I will try my best to do my part to implement what is agreed so that is a new assurance that things are not going to be the same but besides that perhaps should also share what the chief mediator told us yesterday the concerned about the non implementation rather sluggish progress on almost all provisions of the peace agreement has been raised and the chief mediator said he is not here to negotiate another revitalized you know artists there is no need to negotiate a new peace agreement because if we cannot address the reasons behind this like this implementation or the non implementation of certain provisions of the current peace agreement then there's no need to agree on a new peace deal therefore he invited all the delegations to help you to help us so that is the reason why different parties are putting their heads together how can we come out with something that will actually work not the same artist or editing it here and there and you know you know everything that means so you say coming up with a separate agreement would be like changing everything just to leave it the same which is not worthy of this process so that should give us you know another reason to believe that this process is headed somewhere different it's not you know the same game as usual okay yes Marola Kombu you are hearing from my job for you we're also here to help the mediators and the parties to reach an amicable solution maybe if you have got anything oh yes oh yes sunny one of the the major parties to the agreement that you are talking about to be panel beaten and here and there and not so it's not there at at the negotiations that is a spirit my oh is it do you think it's going to affect the the peace process there believe I yes we do have representatives from because here we have article no in fact let me just highlight we have the Honorable Minister of Peace building Stephen Parkour is also here I saw him at this morning and you also have Martina Bocha was here these are all in fact when you speak to them they are not here as IG or IO they are here as Artygum and this discussion is happening between the Nancy Ginteris and Artygum oh great that's sounds good that means we are headed somewhere almost yes the only person who has been invited and has not yet shown up is General Thomas which I think people might be interested to understand what is going on because he is a big deal in terms of the political stakeholders who would you know sign the peace agreement and to that I would say the latest is that the mediation is still trying to engage General Thomas to join the talks if any of the letters he said was he he was not feeling safe to come for talks in Canada yes but given that's all the other parties are here and nothing has happened to them and we could see the practical security arrangement that has been put in place and civil society we can even witness the facility the venue of the talks is being guarded by elite forces that that guards the president of Kenya yeah so it's not a it's not a joke but what we also know is that the mediation is engaging Thomas to offer them particular guidelines on how to provide security during the talks hopefully they address the details and he makes his mind to join the rest since it's the actual negotiations yet to start is is not too late and how long the negotiation will take will be determined by the issues at hand so whatever point he joins I think asking the civil society and the mediation and the rest of the stakeholders will be happy to have him on board because one of the things that the president also said is that you would like to see this process to be inclusive let no one who you know would like to get involved be you know denied representation especially these political actors who have been repeatedly emphasizing the need for dialogue dialogue now dialogues here let us talk and find a way out for the country okay and finally your friends will conclude because we have to also conclude here and allow you go are you optimistic that a deal will be reached soon here through this mediation process by retired General Lazaro Sumbayo I cannot tell how soon it will be but I can say this point from the look of things I am optimistic that there is a consensus that is coming that we should prepare for but I can also tell what the product of that consensus is going to be is it an addendum to the RCS or it's another agreement of a different sort or you know if it's a constitutional you know amendment or of some sort that I do not know but I can tell that I am optimistic that a political consensus is within reach and the parties to the agreement are talking about coming up with the time frame of itself it suffers anywhere for the negotiation because now people are asking how long will these talks tax because also spending a lot of time here means spending more money well at this point I have not seen money and time being placed as constraints to the talks the priority has been given to finding out what way should we go what are the issues that we should we should address however long that text will be determined by you know how productive the conversations are and that these dynamics cannot be determined at the beginning of the talks are outright which I think is a good approach I let the process proceed in an organic fashion and as in the civil society we'll try our best also to push to ensure that we are you know being productive on the other basis standing from my side standing from my side this before he goes I just wanted to know that what were the recommendations from from the civil society in regards to pulling the country out of this di economic situation because he said they recommended and they highlighted what what what did they highlight in terms of pulling the country out of this di economic situation well one of the two things that my fingertips one is leveraging the non-economy I mean non-oil revenues we as you may be aware there is a lot of money coming through by way of taxes as non-oil revenues to South Sudan however we also are aware that these resources are spilling out through corruption so whatever I mean what ends up in government coffers is far less than what is being collected so one of the ways is is to strengthen the the revenue collection mechanism and and the path it it takes for for the funds to land into the central bank and and it doesn't take even money to do that it is is an expression of a political will because they can easily find who is responsible for the spillage of resources and then the other thing is of course strategic borrowing not like auctioning the the country's oil resources for 20 years for a certain number of billions of dollars but you know well calculated borrowing and the investment to strategic sectors of the economy can stimulate the the economy and easily activate recovery so these are things that could be taken what I would like to call low-hanging fruits and of course there are several others but there but there are several things that the government could do without money that could help you know accelerate our our parts to recovery and one ultimate one is to to stop this unnecessary spillage of funds from from government co-fasts into individual pockets great that's a nice one there yes look how much it you have for you here this morning right now the part is the opposition is meeting with the mediators in a close world meeting like I said and one of the major statement that has popped up every day we are hearing from the opposition is that the country south then requires serious work right now like they are talking about reconciliation healing these are the two issues whenever you speak to anyone around the corner they talk about there is need for reconciliation amongst our Sudanese so that the country can come back together so we hope we will keep updating you in the course of the day and get to know what are some of the outcomes of what is being discussed right now in this closed-door meeting [BLANK_AUDIO]