South Sudan backs up internal dialogue in Sudan

June 9, 2022 (JUBA)- South Sudan said Thursday it backed up internal dialogue taking place in neighbouring Sudan from which it seceded, describing efforts being exerted by the regional and international organizations as the best approaches to ending issues of political and security nature.

South Sudanese presidential adviser on security affairs told Sudan Tribune on Thursday he is in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to participate in the internal dialogue conference bringing together different Sudanese stakeholders as the representative of the people and the government of President Salva Kiir.

“The people of South Sudan, their government, and his excellency the president of the republic, Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit fully supports the Sudanese- Sudanese internal dialogue. It is the dialogue for which I was here a few days ago during which I was able to meet and held a consultative dialogue with many stakeholders who are now participating in the dialogue”, explained Tut Gatluak Manime.

The South Sudan official said the dialogue kicked off on Wednesday with the participation of the armed groups from Darfur and other parts of the Sudanese who part of the Sudan peace talks were mediated by the government of South Sudan in Juba.

“The dialogue represents a great opportunity for Sudanese to air out issues of concerns to be discussed so that they lay a foundation of the permanent solution”, he said. Manime said peace and stability in Sudan was a big concern to the region and international community because Sudan was in a strategic place in Africa to be allowed to bleed.

He commended the role being played by the United Nations, African Union, IGAD, and the efforts of leaders in the region who have thrown behind the initiative prioritizing peaceful dialogue.

“We are talking to all the groups, the hold out groups, the youth, the women, the civil society organizations, the intellectuals, the trade, and workers unions, everybody to join the process. The leaders of the freedom for change, the communist leaders, and everyone are being engaged to join the process. This is a very process. It is discussing transitional arrangements and chart ways forward to organizing elections which can only be achieved through dialogue,” said Manime.

Analysts and political experts while they laud the convening of the conference in Sudan, are keen to query what difference the current efforts would make from previous organized and launch in the country. Sudan, according to people with such views, has since its independence in 1956 been considered a recipe for civil wars and continuous violent political, social, and ethnic conflicts.

The wars and conflicts are embracing national crises that have affected all aspects of political, economic, social, and spiritual life in the country. Wars and political conflicts are endemic and deeply rooted and looked upon as natural manifestations of the unsolved questions related to the constitutional and structural issues of the state-building of the newly independent countries.

Since the dawn of independence, many attempts have been made through dialogues and negotiations to resolve what appears to be a chronic and devastating situation in the country without success. A similar National Dialogue in 2014 process was launched at the initiative of the Sudanese president, Omer al-Bashir.

Nonetheless, two main serious questions faced the process: a question asking about the genuineness of the process and whether it was not an attempt to consolidate the power of the government of the former Sudanese president and his ruling national congress party.

Another question explores a possibility and guarantees that failure of all previous attempts of dialogue will recur. The failure of any of the previous attempts has made the Sudanese crisis more complex.

(ST)