S. Sudan dialogue body faces implementation challenges: envoy
August 15, 2017 (JUBA) – A former South Sudanese envoy to the United Nations has warned that the implementation process for the national dialogue initiative was likely to face challenges.
The brief cited the visit in June of the national dialogue leadership to South Africa in an attempt to meet the armed opposition leader Riek Machar and another one to the Sudanese capital Khartoum for consultations with the former agriculture minister, Lam Akol Ajawin.
“If the momentum and integrity which the process has so far demonstrated are maintained through the regional and grassroots consultations, and continue on to the National Conference that will formulate the final recommendations, then the only remaining challenge will be one of implementation,” partly reads Deng’s brief.
“Failure to live up to this challenge is bound to have serious consequences for the authority responsible for implementation. It is one to be wisely avoided”, it added.
Deng, a long serving career diplomat, called for moral pressure, both domestic and international on those who would be given the responsibility to implement the outcome of the dialogue process.
“Wherever the responsibility will ultimately lie, if the process maintains its integrity up to that point, then the weight of the moral pressure, both domestically and internationally, to ensure a credible, recognized, and respected implementation of the recommendations will be difficult to resist”, he further wrote.
Deng, now a roving ambassador for South Sudan, explained that the objective of the visit, which leadership of the committee undertook in June, was to engage as many South Sudanese as possible, inside the country and abroad, in a determined effort to end the violence that is devastating the country and turning its social fabric apart.
“The longer-term objective is not only to end the war, but also to promote a culture of peaceful engagement through dialogue to address the structural sources of conflict at all levels and to institutionalize the process of restoring sustainable peace, security, stability, and development in a beleaguered country,” wrote Deng.
He adds, “If the national dialogue process continues in the way it has so far been conducted, observing the principles of inclusivity, credibility, and transparency which have been widely advocated as crucial to the success of any national dialogue, then the prospects of success are quite promising”.
Officially launched in May this year, the national dialogue initiative is regarded as a forum and process through which the people South Sudan shall gather to redefine the basis of their unity as it relates to nationhood, redefine citizenship and belonging, as well as restructure the state for national inclusion.
Since mid-December 2013, tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million displaced in South Sudan’s worst violence outbreak.
(ST)