Salav Kiir announces 200-day action plan
Sept 8, 2006 (JUBA) — In his speech before Southern Sudan legislative Assembly Wednesday 6 September at the opening of its second session, the Salva Kiir announced the 200-Day Action Plan to monitor the implementation of the GOSS programs of action.
The President of the Government of Southern Sudan told the assembly that he remains committed to the policy statement presented to the legislators on April 10, 2006 to “make a difference in the livelihood” of southern Sudanese.
He also spoke about the involvement of some officials in the “incitement that led to the inter-clan clashes that took so many lives.’ “Those found guilty will not be spared. They will be prosecuted in accordance with the law;” Salva Kiir pledged.
The First Vice-President also, dealt with the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. He exposed the position of the two partners – NCP and SPLM – over different issues: oil commission, Abyei, Boundary panel, and civil service commission.
The following is the full text of his speech
– Honourable Speaker, Mr. James Wani Igga,
– Honourable Members
– Distinguished Guests
– Ladies and Gentlemen
Welcome back to Juba.
I salute you on behalf of the Government of Southern Sudan and on my own behalf. I have the distinct honour to address your August House today, as we open your second parliamentary session. I would therefore seize this opportunity to present to your Honourable House, both the progress and challenges your Government has experienced, after the Policy Statement was delivered to you at the opening of the first session on 10th April 2006.
But before I continue, please allow me to salute the memory of our late leader Dr. John Garang de Mabior, as we recently commemorated the 1st Anniversary of his untimely departure from us. May his vision always continue to inspire us! I also salute all our fallen heroes, whose ultimate sacrifices have made us, reach where we stand now.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
I hope that you have spent some productive and valuable time with your respective communities, constituencies and your dear families and that you have returned from your recess rejuvenated and ready to take on the challenges of your critical assignment.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
As we open this second session of our Legislative Assembly, I wish to once again bring to your attention the policy statement of our government, delivered to your August House on April 10th, 2006, reaffirming that we remain committed today as were then to translate the outlined programs therein into concrete achievements that will make a difference in the livelihood of our people.
In this connection I am privileged to inform you that your government has launched a 200 Day Action Plan as a means to monitor and follow up the implementation of our programs of action. This plan clearly specifies a limited number of priority policy actions, activities, projects, and programs which we in the government are committed to completing within a specified time-frame.
Each ministry or institution has identified a limited number of programs that they commit themselves to substantially complete before the end of March 2007. The selection of activities to be included in the Plan was made on the following criteria:
– The program may be a physical infrastructure project, service delivery improvements, policy articulation or institutional development.
– All selected activities must demonstrably impact positively on the quality of life of the people.
– The program selected must respond to priorities defined in the Government Policy Statement delivered to this House on April 10th, 2006.
– All the selected programs must have the necessary funding allocated under the 2006 Budget approved by this House, and will be the highest priority activities that will be implemented in case of any shortfalls in government revenues; and,
– The targets defined must be suitably modest so they can be substantially completed in the Action Plan period and must recognize the severe human and other capacity constraints faced by the government.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
Your Government has identified, and selected the following five (5) goals as its immediate construction and development strategies, each of equal importance:
i. Rehabilitation of Physical Infrastructure,
ii. Provision of basic social services,
iii. Maintenance of peace and security,
iv. Building the Economy, and
v. Strengthening public institutions and good governance at all levels of government in Southern Sudan.
Within each of these selected goals, the Government of Southern Sudan and its development partners will take many critical actions mindfully stressing that over the next 200 days, the myriad of formidable challenges facing the Government and its people in Southern Sudan may not all be overcome. However, through this short-term of the 200 Day Action Plan the government intends to engender an implementation culture in the public service and to lay firm foundations for a concerted and sustained development program for the citizens of Southern Sudan.
1- Rehabilitation of Physical Infrastructure:
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
No meaningful development can take place without essential infrastructure being in place. In recognition of this fact, the government in conjunction with its development partners will:
– Continue the ongoing emergency roads repair program covering a total of 1500 km of trunk roads.
– Embark upon a major program of upgrading 1264 km of roads to all-weather standard.
– Undertake immediate maintenance and rehabilitation work on a number of public offices and residences in Juba and the State Capitals. Among other buildings, the Action Plan program will include all ministry headquarters, Juba Airport, Juba Teaching Hospital, Supreme Court and High Court buildings, Legislative Assembly and five (5) State Police headquarters.
– Commence rehabilitation of water, sewage and sanitation in Juba, Wau and Malakal; and, feasibility studies for the other nine (9) State Capitals.
– Complete the restoration of electricity supply to Juba and undertake planning for supplying Wau and Malakal with electricity.
2- Basic Services:
Over the next 200 days the government is committed to undertake the following:
– Provide for the rehabilitation of 50 Primary schools, 20 Secondary schools, and 3 Universities.
– Publish and distribute textbooks required for primary education.
– Fast track the training and appointment of teachers, particularly for primary schools throughout Southern Sudan.
– Procure and supply essential drugs to all health facilities under the emergency program.
– Commence the rehabilitation and upgrading of 3 main Hospitals in Malakal, Wau and Juba, plus 3 other state hospitals.
– Start construction of 15 County Hospitals.
– Develop a strategy for strengthening the primary health care system and introduction of an intensive control program for endemic diseases such as Malaria and Tuberculosis (TB).
– Establish HIV/AIDS control program.
– Undertake fast track programs to train health care workers, nurses, and other health staff.
– Rehabilitate 100 boreholes and undertake planning to construct 530 new boreholes, and work to provide potable water supply systems to urban and rural communities.
– Establish a regulatory framework for expansion of telecommunications all over Southern Sudan.
3- Peace and Security:
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
The most important duty of our government is the provision of protection and security for our people and all those who reside in Southern Sudan be they citizens or foreigners. In pursuit of this your government is:
– Undertaking a program to integrate the different units of the SPLA into a professional army with formal command structure.
– Integrating all other armed groups into the SPLA.
– Demobilizing between 13000-15000 soldiers through DDR.
– Encouraging formation of war veterans associations.
– Working with appropriate international and domestic agencies to facilitate the speedy return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their home of origin.
– Strengthening State police forces through recruitment of additional policemen/women, training, and provision of uniform and equipment.
– Revising existing or introducing new statutes in order to create a civil and criminal legislative framework based on justice, equality, respect for human rights and the rule of law.
– Implementing an awareness campaign to engender a better understanding of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement among all citizens of Southern Sudan.
– Rehabilitating radio and TV studios and expanding transmission network.
– Establishing a GOSS News Agency.
4- Rebuilding the Economy:
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
The Government will encourage and support the development of a vibrant economy in Southern Sudan by:
– Adopting a policy framework that ensures support for the private sector and defines the appropriate role for the public sector as well, where the public sector would play the role of a facilitator and regulator at the same time, but not actively engage in productive enterprises.
– Developing an Investment Act, regulatory and licensing procedures for private enterprise to encourage domestic and international investment in Southern Sudan.
– Training community based extension workers to mobilize farming communities to maximize agricultural production.
– Taking steps to improve agricultural and forestry services through provision of inputs and micro-finance.
– Establishing a regulatory framework for the sustainable exploitation of our forestry resources.
– Undertaking feasibility studies for cash, food crop and horticultural production and commence seed multiplication programs.
– Rehabilitating 3 dairy and poultry farms, and establishing 3 fish demonstrating farms.
– Rehabilitating and re-equipping Vocational Training Institutes in Wau, Juba and Malakal.
– Rehabilitating Technical Training Schools at Tonj, Torit and Malakal.
5- Strengthening of our Institutions of Governance:
The need to strengthen our public service institutions so that they serve the people of Southern Sudan transparently and effectively is paramount. The Government of Southern Sudan has:
– Established institutional frameworks and procedures for coordinated and effective decision making in the Council of Ministers.
– Amalgamated former CANS and CCSS staff into a single unified public service.
– Completed the appointments to all the senior posts in the GOSS, Public Service; ministries have now become more operational and able to fulfill their mandates effectively and efficiently.
– Provided the legal and regulatory framework for the operation of the public service.
– Facilitated transparency and accountability by enacting Public Financial Management and Procurement Regulations.
– Implemented new harmonized system of revenue and taxation administration in accordance with financial public accounting regulations.
– Initiated institutional capacity building programs across all sectors and commenced training programs to build technical and professional skills across the public service.
– Promulgated laws covering mercantile subjects and general application.
– Established independent Commissions and agencies.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
The Government is committed to taking action in all other areas in the next 200 days. Some activities will be completed by the end of this period whereas others will take longer to implement. The Action Plan is only the initial phase of a long-term strategy for the construction and development of Southern Sudan and sustained poverty reduction.
I wish to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the fact that the identified targeted development projects, within the 200 day plan of action, will only be accomplished when there exist peace, tranquility and security throughout Southern Sudan, particularly in the areas where these projects are planned to be launched.
Insecurity in various areas and towns of Southern Sudan continues to be a matter of concern for the Government. Most of this insecurity is attributable to our own citizens. Yet most of the violence cannot be said to have any political motives. Most incidents involving violence emanate from common criminals whose motives are personal and quite petty. Ethnic clashes have usually involved more people, cost more lives and led to loss of livestock and property. But our authorities at various levels in the states have done and continue to do their best in curbing these incidents. The last two months have witnessed relative quiet in many areas of the South, thanks to the efforts of our security forces. I appeal to you to take it upon yourselves to sensitize our citizens about the dangers of continued lawlessness. However, I assure you that your government will sustain the priority that it has accorded the problem of insecurity in our land.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
On July 5th, 2006 I left Juba for the Greater Bahr El Ghazal states, accompanied by some members of this House, Advisors and Ministers in the Government of Southern Sudan. We had the privilege to visit all the four States of Greater Bahr El Ghazal, our itinerary taking us to Wau, Kwajok, Aweil, Rumbek, Alek, Lietnhom, Turalei, Malual-Kon and Tonj towns.
During this tour, we were shocked to learn from the citizens of some of these areas that some of our leaders, people holding constitutional positions and senior SPLA officers were involved in the incitement that led to the inter-clan clashes that took so many lives. Allegations were made to the effect that some military commanders supplied arms and ammunition to their respective clans. In response to these allegations I directed that a thorough and unfettered investigation be carried out immediately. Those found guilty will not be spared. They will be prosecuted in accordance with the law. I am proud to say that the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan does not allow anyone to be above the law.
The Government of Southern Sudan will strive to restore harmony and co-existence among our communities, because this is the only way to realize true peace, unity and reconciliation among our people. Nevertheless, your government will not lose sight of pursuing the culprits who are behind this phenomenon.
However, I would like to remind ourselves here that more work needs to be done. The situation in many parts of Southern Sudan today still remains fragile and volatile where eruption or resumption of similar clashes between various clans are inevitable as long as the arms proliferation in Southern Sudan is still going on unabated.
The availability of arms and means of acquiring them by our local population is a major concern for our government. Though as government we have always thought of designing a comprehensive disarmament policy that takes into consideration some concerns of our local communities living along the regional borders, as well as those who have a history of fighting each other, so that when such a policy goes into effect, its end results should not be exploited by the side that may continue to retain its arms.
The disarmament policy should also be cautiously designed in such a way that it does not trigger ethnic violence within our communities. It will not therefore be long before our security and law enforcement agencies take a step to implement this policy once the laws guiding it are promulgated.
I call upon our legislators at all levels of our government to take the lead in this campaign meanwhile, your government will do everything in its power to protect the lives and property of our citizens and guest residents all over the Southern Sudan.
Recently, I learnt that our youth in Akobo took a unilateral decision and disarmed themselves, where 1200 AK 47s were handed over to the authorities in Akobo in the presence of the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). This move taken by our youth is very encouraging and I wholeheartedly welcome it. I therefore would like to take this opportunity to salute our youth in Akobo, and congratulate the authorities there and whoever may have helped in making this to happen.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
The peace talks between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army remain on course. The two sides have now committed themselves to the cessation of hostilities. LRA forces inside Southern Sudan have agreed to assemble at two assembling points: one in Western Equatoria State and the other at Owingkibul in Eastern Equatoria. Ending the war that has devastated millions of families, killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in Northern Uganda, with significant spill-over in Southern Sudan will be a great achievement for the people of Southern Sudan and the people of our sisterly neighbour, Uganda.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
The implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is on course, although more needs to be done. In May 2006 the SPLM and National Congress Party (NCP) held their first joint meeting in Khartoum with the view to evaluating the implementation process. That meeting was quite comprehensive, addressing a wide range of pertinent issues and discussing what needed to be done to ensure proper and timely implementation of the CPA. Four issues were identified as deserving of special focus, as follows:
On the Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC), our partners in peace, the NCP, rejected the experts’ report on the matter, claiming that the committee of international experts that prepared the report on Abyei boundaries with its neighbouring areas, which are part of northern Sudan, had overstepped their mandate.
All the arguments the SPLM used to persuade the NCP were rejected outright, including a proposal to invite an outside arbitrator to help us reach some agreement on the matter. The NCP insisted that the issue could only be resolved by the Presidency. That resolution has yet to be achieved, and Abyei still remains without an administration.
The second issue of contention related to the National Petroleum Commission (NPC). The SPLM had proposed that the secretary of the NPC should be a neutral or an independent Sudanese personality, but not the Minister of Energy in the Government of National Unity whom the SPLM considered as partisan and would therefore not be capable of adhering to the principles of neutrality and fairness. The National Congress Party adamantly refused to accommodate the views of the SPLM. However, the two parties agreed recently to form joint committees with the responsibility to review the relevant issues over which they had failed to agree. The issue of detailed statistical data at the production sites in the oil fields of Southern Sudan will feature prominently among such issues.
The third issue was the North-South Boundary Commission. Although this commission was formed a long time ago, it had remained redundant, deprived of the tools necessary for it to commence its groundwork.
The importance of this commission lies in that the determination and demarcation of North-South boundaries has a crucial bearing on the share of the South in oil revenue. For it is only from oil wells within the boundaries of Southern Sudan that we are entitled to a 50% share. Equally, the demarcation of our boundary with the North has a similar bearing on the referendum for self-determination of the South. It is common knowledge that our boundary with the North as it stood on 1st January 1956 has been tampered with at many locations.
The demarcation of the boundaries is also crucial in relation to the redeployment of forces. The CPA stipulates the withdrawal of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from the South to the northern side of the boundary, and the withdrawal of SPLA forces from the North to the Southern side of the boundary. Without the proper demarcation of the boundary, there could occur, serious disagreement over where such withdrawing forces could be considered to have crossed into the North or South.
However, it is encouraging to note that this commission has started its work in earnest of late. I have been informed that members of the Commission will visit Southern Sudan, starting with Juba next Friday, 8th September. It is our hope that the concerns of the South in this area will now begin to be satisfactorily addressed.
The fourth issue is the Civil Service Commission. It is this Commission which should oversee the recruitment and placement of Southern Sudanese civil servants into the national civil service under the Government of National Unity (GNU), in accordance with the Power Sharing Protocol of the CPA. As you all know, this protocol gives the South 28% of the civil service positions under the national government. But our people have been deprived of this employment opportunity because the body that is supposed to organize and implement this clause has not been formed up to now. It is important to note, however, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the only ministry that has decided not to wait for the Commission. The Ministry recently appointed 16 Southern Sudanese as ambassadors, and our people look forward to seeing appointments to other subordinate positions therein.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
In July 2006, I received an official invitation from the President of the United States of America, requesting me to visit Washington, DC. As we all know, the United States of America did play a major role in keeping the peace talks alive until the CPA was eventually signed in Nairobi, Kenya on January 9th, 2005.
On the other hand, the United States was also among a small group of Western countries which assisted the IGAD mediators in moderating the peace talks to a successful conclusion. These countries, together with the IGAD mediators, should have an oversight role in the implementation process of the CPA. This should have helped where there is a deadlock between the two partners in peace, but it is unfortunate that the former warring parties were left to implement the CPA at their free will. For instance, what transpired in the SPLM/NCP May 2006 Khartoum meeting could have been resolved amicably, if the parties referred to above were to be involved.
It was against this background that the President of the United States of America, Mr. George W. Bush, extended an invitation to me with the view to knowing what progress we had achieved in the implementation of the CPA.
During my meeting with Mr. Bush on July 20th, 2006 in the Oval Office of the White House, I narrated to the United States President, all that I have just narrated to your August House today. I also did inform him that the CPA implementation process has proved more difficult in some areas than the Naivasha peace negotiations. This is so because in Naivasha, we had mediators, special envoys and many other actors, who were there to facilitate. Where the two parties could not make decisions freely, there was help available. But we are missing that help now although we need it badly in the implementation process. I therefore emphasized to him that there is still a great need for those facilitators to be availed to us during the ongoing implementation process.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
During my stay in Washington DC, I also met the Secretary of the States, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, and many other senior members of the Bush Administration. I also met a number of United States Senators and Congressmen, all of whom expressed their full and unreserved support for the peace in Sudan, and promised to render us help, when and wherever we need it.
I also took time to meet with our Diaspora living in America, and some who had traveled all the way from Canada. My message to them and all those living in other parts of the world was that we have signed peace, and we were determined to maintain and protect it. I told them that what we needed urgently was development and those of them who had acquired skills and education in the countries of their refuge, should now bring those skills home so as to help in the capacity building, construction and development of our country.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members,
I believe you are following the concerted media campaign in the Khartoum media against our political organization, the SPLM. We are being accused of complaining too much, especially about the unsatisfactory implementation of the CPA. But our response is that our approach to this matter is a healthy approach. We do not want either party to become complacent about this crucial instrument of peace. By promptly and repeatedly pointing out failures and weaknesses, we actually try to pre-empt the kind of cumulative failure that can only lead to disastrous consequences. Your duty as legislators is to serve as the watchdog on the CPA. On our part in the Executive, we shall persevere in our efforts to bring pressure to bear on our partner, the NCP, so that it strictly adheres to the letter and spirit of the CPA.
Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I expect that your second session is going to be a busy one. The Government of Southern Sudan is in the process of completing the drafting of a number of bills for presentation to your August House. These will demand a lot of your time and I have no doubt that you will appreciate the necessity of such legislations and will therefore deliberate on them and pass them as promptly as you can.
I wish you a very productive parliamentary season and ask Almighty God to bless our country and give us good health to serve our people to the best of our ability.
Thank you.
(ST)