South Sudan to launch national reconciliation agenda

October 11, 2013 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s committee on national healing, peace and reconciliation is set to launch nationwide consultations with a national agenda for reconciliation to be owned and supported by all, its chairperson has said.

Episcopal Church Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul said his committee will soon orient sub-committees in five of the country’s 10 states, ahead of a retreat workshop earmarked for December.

The Episcopal church Archbishop was appointed by President Salva Kiir in April this year to reconciliation body, with deputised by his Catholic Church counterpart, Paride Taban. Kiir has officially declared national reconciliation as one of the priorities for South Sudan.

The committee, led by its chairperson, recently visited South Africa, where they met key people and institutions that had been part of the country’s truth and reconciliation process.

The South Africans, according Archbishop Bul, emphasised the need for a South Sudanese reconciliation process that will be home-grown and not copied from elsewhere.

The South Sudanese delegation, its chair said, also learnt lessons, both positive and negative, from other countries’ experiences, particularly South Africa.

“Generally all of the South Africans affirmed the process proposed by the Committee,” Archbishop Bul said in a statement.

During their visit, the South Sudanese team reportedly met the Anglican and Catholic Archbishops of Cape Town, Archbishops Thabo Macgoba and Stephen Brislin. The team also held meetings with the inter-faith groups, academics, the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO), the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) and Alex Boraine, the ex-deputy chair of the country’s truth and reconciliation commission.

(ST)