Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The leader of The Real SPLM asserted that drawing upon the lessons learned from past failed peace agreements will be instrumental in achieving a lasting solution to the current crisis in South Sudan.
Pagan Amum Okech conveyed his insights during an exclusive interview with Eye Radio, conducted in Nairobi, Kenya.
He underscored the significance of President Salva Kiir’s Tumaini Initiative, noting its timely emergence amidst the country’s ongoing crisis.
Furthermore, Pagan highlighted the commitment of Kenyan President William Ruto, emphasizing that the situation in South Sudan has broader implications affecting not only South Sudan but also Kenya and the wider region.
He pointed out that given the depth of the crisis South Sudanese are currently facing, the discussions have led leaders to recognize the imperative of negotiating and addressing the underlying root causes.
“With the discussion, we have engaged in and realizing the situation of the deep crisis that we are in now, the thinking is now to negotiate and address the root causes,” Pagan said.
Tumaini Initiative is unique
Pagan emphasized the importance of drawing lessons from our South Sudanese experience, reflecting on why we haven’t succeeded in building a nation where citizens coexist peacefully.
“We are learning from our experiences as South Sudanese, we are asking ourselves, why have we failed to build a country where our people live in peace among themselves, and why there is violence? why our community is divided, and why have we failed to implement the agreement that we have signed,” he stated.
“There is a wealthy experience we have as South Sudanese and from this, the parties here are working to craft solutions to these challenges and crises that we have, so this process is answering these questions that we have raised,” he added.
He added that the delegates at the peace talks are applying the lessons learned from failures in previous peace agreements during negotiations.
“We are negotiating to have in mind the lessons from our failures to bring peace to our country, that is why we are very hopeful that this will lead to a breakthrough,” Pagan said.
Tumaini Initiative is our hope
The leader of The Real SPLM stated, initially, that the leaders have come to recognize that for this process to be truly inclusive, encompassing all South Sudanese stakeholders.
Pagan says this should evolve into what he described as ‘an inclusive national constitutional conference’
“First, in our discussion, we have realized that to make this process inclusive, inclusive of all South Sudanese stakeholders, this process in our view would transform itself into a national constitutional conference, an inclusive national constitutional conference,” said Pagan.
According to Pagan, the national constitutional conference is expected to yield the following outcomes:
Finally, according to Pagan, the process would launch and seek support from the region, the continent, and the international community.
As outlined in the peace agreement, the timeline for the Revitalized Transitional Government has elapsed, and the extended roadmap, mutually agreed upon by all parties, is set to conclude in seven months.
Originally, the parties committed to relinquishing power to the people by February 2025.
However, given the current circumstances within the country, fulfilling this condition remains unmet.
The 2018 peace agreement stated that the unity government will lead the process of building of permanent constitution of South Sudan, which will be the basis for holding elections.
The Constitution was expected to define the electable positions and the form of government that we have and what would be the system that will choose their government in free and fair elections.
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