S. Sudanese clerics want churches involved in peace process
June 7, 2015 (JUBA/KIGALI) – Religious leaders attending a one week retreat organised by South Council of Churches have advocated that the church be allowed to play roles in the country’s peace process, which should be owned by South Sudanese stakeholders.
“The church has historically played significant roles in peace building,” the group said, citing the church’s involvement in several past peace processes in the country, including the Naivasha accord and the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
“Only the church can bring about forgiveness and reconciliation,” the clerics stressed.
The religious leaders, during their retreat, also showed full support for the international community and vowed to work with them in efforts to peacefully end South Sudan’s war.
The clerics, however, urged the warring parties in the conflict to immediately cease military hostilities and return to the peace talks mediated by the regional bloc (IGAD).
The delegation of clerics from South Sudan also developed interest in Rwanda’s homegrown peace initiatives, a mechanism they said could be practical in their country.
A number of governmnet of officials and lawmakers accompanied the religious leaders to Kigali where they met their counterparts and other representatives to exchange ideas.
RWANDA EXPERIENCE
The South Sudan delegation reportedly expressed enthusiasm in learning more about Rwanda’s strategies of economic recovery and reconciliation after the 1994 genocide.
Homegrown initiatives have been recognised as some of the best practices in addressing Rwanda’s development challenges, including lifting many from poverty.
“Rwanda has registered tremendous progress in the socio-economic transformation, mainly due to citizens engagement with policy makers through the use of homegrown initiatives,” Samuel Mulindwa, Rwanda’s minister for public service reportedly said.
Such initiatives, he said, include Ubudehe (social stratification), community work (Umuganda), performance contracts (Imihigo) and One Cow per Poor Family (Girinka), National Dialogue (Umushyikirano) and Leadership Retreat (Umwiherero) among others.
Ngor Kolong Ngor, the South Sudanese minister for public service, said the world’s youngest nation took Rwanda as a case study considering that the two countries share a similar history, but the latte managed to quickly recover from its conflict and prospered.
“You will be seeing many of us coming here frequently, we want to learn more about Rwanda and the strategies used for the country to be where it is,” said Ngo
South Sudan’s minister for transport and roads, Danhier Gatluak, also praised Rwanda’s homegrown initiatives, citing the Gacaca courts of which he wants his nation to emulate.
“We need reconciliation and unity lessons, we have citizens who stayed in our homeland and were subjected to terrible brutality, we also have those who fought during the liberation war, and another group that was in the Diaspora. We need to unite all these people,” said Gatluak.
(ST).