South Sudan civil society leader accuses government of causing rift
November 26, 2014 (JUBA) – The leader of the major coalition of South Sudanese civil society organisations has accused government of fomenting a rift within the leadership of the alliance, allegedly for uttering critical view expressing disappointment with lack of seriousness by the principal leaders in the conflict to make compromise and bridge gap in order to bring peace.
“They are causing confusion because some of them, right from the conference hall were not happy with me. I said on Monday at the consultative meeting that the two leaders and the SPLM as a party must bring peace because people who are paying the price of this war are innocent people. I said those who are paying the cost now are not the leaders, which is true. Do you know any of their children suffering now as a result of this war? No. So they are not feeling any pain,” said Mawiir
He said the remark he made are based on reality and this is why some people in the government felt agitated and resorted to citing some of their supporters masking as members of civil society group to cause confusion and division within the alliance.
“There is no way we will be separated from this country. This is our country and we should not be made to keep quiet because some people want us to do so. And when accept to keep quiet, we see nothing good happening and when we talk, they say we are not supposed to talk like that. How do they want us to talk? We do not say bad things. And it is not actually our intention to say bad things. We say what we see is not going right way. If things are done in the right way, we will congratulate those who have done the right thing and give them our support. This is the work of the civil society,” he explained.
Mawiir said on Monday that neither the president Kiir nor the armed opposition leader, Machar, has a child in the fighting force. “Sometimes those who are really paying the real cost are the grass-roots citizens”.
He further pointed out that “it is a time to call them to sign peace right away and come without all these excuses”.
Mawiir concluded by warning the leadership to accept peace in the manner in which former South Africa president Nelson Mandala did it or risk being deposed from power the way the former Libyan president left the palace.
“This is our nation and we will not turn away from here. We need peace now and if the party is not able to do that he should choose one of two, either for this party to be like what Mandela did in South Africa or can be like Gaddafi,” said Mawiir.
These remarks prompted president Kiir to declare he has a son in the army and that nobody should challenge him because he had fought two wars to be told about fighting.
Later Mawiir was approached by several government officials, including family members of the president asking him to apologise.
On Tuesday Kiir Malual, one of the pro-Kiir activists, said that the speech by Deng Athuai was unacceptable because it touched on the personality of Salva Kiir. Malual denounced the speech by the SSCSA chairman, saying it does not represent the civil society organizations.
He called for the immediate impeachment of Athuai and that a meeting should be held to select a new head of the civil society.
But Mawiir rejected the claim, saying the group was simply used by the government to cause confusion.
“One thing which these people do not know is that I did not impose myself or chose to remain in the office without the permission of the alliance. I was elected by the civil society organisations and the leadership that elected me to the position is the one with full mandate and authority to remove me, not government agents masking as activists within the civil society,” he explained.
(ST)