 |
| Bishop Santo Loku, Auxiliay bishop of Juba |
Fear of re-escalation of war and uncertainty for their the lives, are the major concern of many South Sudanese after the failure of last week’s talks for final peace agreement between the two factions of the SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the ruling party), led by President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
According to Rt. Rev. Santo Loku Pio Doggale, Auxiliary Bishop of Juba, people on the ground are worried of the looming war, except that they don’t know where and when is it going to start.
The negotiations, sponsored by the African Union and IGAD (Inter-governmental Authority on Development,) an organization that brings together the Countries of East Africa, failed because of the disagreement on the power sharing system of the government of national unity that was intended to be set up to stop the civil war which broke out in December 2013.
“We in Juba and most of the people around the country whom we were interacting with, already anticipated that the peace talk in Addis Ababa was going to fail because the issues that triggered the conflicts and the killings in Juba and in South Sudan at large were not being addressed,” Bishop Santos said adding that “The leaders were only talking about their positions of power. We read through the agreement prepared by the IGAD, what we called the draft agreement and the major issues were not addressed at all.”
Bishop Santo singled out the issue of governance as one of the factors that led to the conflict which broke out in December 2013. “The question of good governance, which is the main problem was not addressed,” he said adding that “The constitution is not being respected and people are feeling that the government structures are not serving them much and so, they have been calling for reforms in the leadership structures as well as in the political parties’ structures, as well as in the government machinery structures.”
Another issue that, according to Bishop Santo should have been addressed is the fact that the conflict in South Sudan has taken an ethnic line where a number of people have been targeted according to their ethnic affiliation. “This issue has never been addressed in the talks. People have been killed because they belonged to certain ethnic groups and this sinful issue was not addressed in Addis Ababa talks; Their major concern was about leadership,” he said.
“This is the reason why the Bishops of South Sudan in their pastoral letter issued at the beginning of this year ‘Go deeper’ called for the discussions of major issues that are contentious in order to achieve real peace which the people of South Sudan are yearning for,” he said.
The other issue is the loss of human lives and destruction of properties. According to Bishop Santo, it was not in the agenda during the IGAD talks. “Hundreds of people have been killed during the conflict and properties destroyed; people have been pushed into poverty, how do you deal with these two issues? Yet nothing of the sort has been addressed in that negotiation,” said Bishop Santo.
“The issues such as that of favoritism, discrimination according to tribal affiliations; need to be addressed rather than power struggle between two ethnic communities yet there are over 60 ethnic tribes in South Sudan,” he said.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News