South Sudanese abroad petition UN chief over conflict

April 10, 2015 (JUBA) – More than 200 South Sudanese in different parts of the United States have petitioned the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, urging the world body to find a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the country’s conflict.

The group, in a petition extended to Sudan Tribune, backed calls for imposition of targeted sanctions and an arms embargo on any party found to be obstructing or and frustrating the young nation’s peace process, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2206 (2015).

“We express deep concern about the speech President Kiir delivered at a public rally in Juba on March 18, 2015 in which the President seemed to renege on most of the issues both sides had agreed upon in the recent inconclusive peace talks in Addis Ababa,” partly reads the 26 March request.

The petitioners, in their appeal, also called for immediate release of the findings of the African Union commission of inquiry on South Sudanese crisis, arguing that the continued withholding of the report encourages impunity, emboldens the perpetrators of the heinous crimes committed in the capital, Juba, and other parts of the country.

This, they argued, does not serve the cause of justice for the victims of these crimes.
The group of activists also called for immediate withdrawal of the Uganda People Defense Forces (UPDF) from South Sudan’s territory.

“Uganda’s involvement in the war in support of the government of South Sudan undermines its role in mediating peace between the parties to the conflict, complicates the peace process, and may be contributing to the failure to achieve peace in South Sudan,” adds the petition.

The group further advocated for the active involvement of the troika countries and other international stakeholders in the peace process alongside the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member countries, insisting that the active participation of the Troika will give the process the impetus needed to end the conflict.

They also called for comprehensive and sustainable peace that tackles fundamental issues of governance and all conditions that contributed to emergence of the conflict.

“We specifically call for the adoption of a democratic federal system of government as one of the solutions to the ending the war in South Sudan,” the petition adds.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced since conflict broke out in the young nation in December 2013. Aid agencies estimate that over three million of the population in the world’s youngest nation could face severe starvation.

(ST)