South Sudan’s peace implementation is in progress
The graduation of the First batch of the Necessary Unified Forces of the Republic of South Sudan is an indication that parties to Revitalized Peace Agreement are making progress in implementing the agreement fully.
By Lul Gatkuoth Gatluak
The graduation of the Necessary Unified Forces of the Republic of South Sudan on Tuesday August 30, 2022, is a milestone provision South Sudanese people welcomed with jubilation. Since the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement on September 12, 2018, Security arrangement has been one of the most challenging tasks among other chapters in the peace pact. The graduation has brought minimal hope to the general public who feared that the country might be plunged back to violence by the parties’ unwillingness to implement the peace entirely. This graduation will strengthen the capacity of the Transitional Government to protect its own citizens by curtailing subnational and inter-communal violence and demonstrate South Sudan’s respect for human rights by enhancing accountability and guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the country.
During this first batch of graduation, a total of 21,973 graduated, 3,308 of whom are VIP protection forces, 4, 366 are police forces, 6, 315 are national security services, 1,120 are prison services, 3,575 are wildlife services, and 3, 289 are civil defence forces. According to the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, South Sudan is required to train and graduate a unified force of 83,000 personnel to take charge of security during the transitional period until when the elections are held. However, the unification of the army had been delayed amid missed deadlines given the mistrust among the peace partners.
Initially, implementation of RACSS began on Saturday, February 22, 2020, when the Transitional Government of National Unity was formed, marking the start of a 36-month transitional period ahead of the holding of elections in accordance with the terms of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS). Following the swearing-in of the presidency on Saturday, February 22, 2020, the parties to the Revitalized Peace Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) began to engage in endless negotiation, rivalling hard over which type of ministerial positions and states each party is going to get.
After a prolonged disagreement, the stalemate came to an end when on Thursday, March 12, 2020, the parties forced each other to divide ministers as it was stipulated in R-ARCSS. However, the government delayed parliamentarians’ swearing in and that delay worried the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and other South Sudan peace facilitators like Troika. Then on Monday, August 2, 2021, the South Sudan government finally decided to swear in the reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA). The mix of delegates from the ruling party SPLM-in Government and former rebel factions who signed the truce, took the oath of office at a ceremony in Juba presided over by the chief justice Chan Reec Madut.
Following the conclusion of the parliament reconstitution and swearing-in of the National Legislative Assembly, peace partners turned their attention to the formation of State governments. Like the rivalling over ministerial positions, the parties immediately disagreed and failed to reach a consensus on the responsibility and allocation of the States and local government levels. Despite the disagreement and lack of consensus, Kiir took a unilateral move to work on States allocation ignoring the peace provisions that stated decision–making within the Presidency will be collaborative and will be based on continuous consultations with written records kept. Moreover, the peace document spelt out that, the incumbent government should nominate five State governors and the remaining five can be dispersed between the rest of the parties.
Nevertheless, Kiir proceeded with the allocation of the States. He allocated six regional states (Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, Lakes, Warrap, Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and Unity) to his party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Government (SPLM-IG) and attempted to give SPLM-IO two States. When SPLM-IO disagreed after hearing the move Kiir had taken, he then gave IO three states (Jonglei, Western Bahr el-Ghazal and Western Equatoria). He then allocated Upper Nile State to the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) and left OPP, which was supposed to have one State without one. The allocation right away sparked disagreement, as Machar and other opposition parties were contesting the unilateralism displayed by Kiir, arguing that the decision does not consider and acknowledge the relative prominence of the political parties within the respective states and administrative areas. It is such decision-making and problem-solving approaches that produce disunity and mistrust among parties to the R-ARCSS and in government. The responsibility of sharing states should have been motivated by the rationale to ensure effective decentralization and devolution for better governance, rather than be driven by nonproductive politics of power struggle and the wish for control.
When the parties concluded States distribution, they turned to remainder provisions in the peace document especially Chapter 2 of the R-ARCSS which relates to Permanent Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangement, and Chapter 5 which provides for a holistic and comprehensive program of transitional justice to address widespread human rights violations, including through the establishment of a Commission on Truth, Reconciliation and Healing; a Hybrid Court; and a Compensation and Reparations Authority, the issue of a permanent constitution and other challenges make it difficult to address some of the root causes of the conflict in South Sudan. One of the most frustrating phenomena in South Sudan’s conflict history has been the unwillingness of parties to peace agreements to implement what they agreed upon in good faith.
The R-ARCSS provides for the unification, training and redeployment of forces to be done within the first eight months (pre-transition), upon which the tenure of the transitional government would start for a period of 36 months, constitutional review, and elections for the next government coming at least 60 days before the end of the transitional period.
The step of graduation gives hope to the general public that R-ARCSS is meant to be implemented. As of today, we began to hope that the titles of Commanders-in-Chief from some leaders have ended. Article 2.4.1 of R-ARCSS stated that any C-in-C from the opposition shall cease to be legitimate at the end of the pre-transitional period and until the end of the unification of the forces. Dr Riek Machar can only act as C-in-C in the event of the absence of President Kiir from the country. It is now the responsibility of one commander in chief who is the President of the Republic and those who are being assigned to the high military rank now to see to it that the logistics and other arrangements for the graduation of the forces are completed. The remaining tasks are redeployment of forces, repatriation of refugees, census and the conduct of the election after 24 months as the new roadmap had stipulated.
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