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By Roger Alfred Yoron Modi, Kampala, Uganda
Saturday, July 28, 2018 (PW) – On Wednesday, the Government of South Sudan, the SPLM-IO, Other Policy The OPP and SSUM parties, with the exception of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance and the FD, initialed an agreement on outstanding governance issues in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in the framework of the High Level Revitalization Forum led by Igad HLRF. Conflict in South Sudan ARCSS
The agreement provides that Salva Kiir will continue as President of South Sudan and SPLM / A-IO President Dr. Riek Machar will take the position of First Vice President. The Agreement further provides that during the transitional period there will be four Vice-Presidents of the Republic of South Sudan to be appointed by the TGONUU; SSOA; the holder TGoNU;
Among other things, the Agreement provides that the Council of Ministers will comprise 35 ministers and will be endowed with: the TGONU holder: 20 ministers. SPLM / A-IO: 09ministers. SSOA: 03 ministers. FD: 02 ministers. OPP: 0l Minister. According to the Agreement, the parties are "aware that a federal government system is a popular demand of the people of the Republic of South Sudan and the need for the revitalized TGoNU to reflect this demand through the devolution of more powers and resources
Article 6.11 of the Agreement states that "the parties reaffirm their agreement within the ARCSS that a federal system of government and democratic that reflects the character of the Republic of South Sudan The final agreement should be formally signed on August 5 in Khartoum, at a ceremony attended by Heads of State and Government of IGAD
The SSOA and the FD refuse the agreement
Among other reasons discussed below, the Alliance d & # 39; South Sudan Opposition (SSOA) and Former Detainees (FDs) rejected the agreement (proposition) with the first invoking "inconsistency in the formulas of shared responsibilities", while the second stated that there was "a serious lack of consistency in the allocation of sharing reports" power at all levels of governance. "
South Sudanese government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth, while calling on parties who have refused to join the agreement, to acknowledge the progress made during talks in Khartoum . "Those who have not signed the agreement are insignificant and we will continue without them if they do not join us." Without specifying, Makuei added, "In fact, a lot of effort have been deployed to discredit the Government of Sudan. And we remained firm with the government of Sudan, supporting it so that they could achieve this great success. "The spokesman of the Government of South Sudan called on the United States and the international community to support the agreement and its implementation." And Chief Mediator Al-Dierdiry Ahmed, of another side, reportedly saying that they would continue their efforts to get the groups to sign the agreement.
John Prendergast, founding director of The Enough Project's advocacy group and co-founder of The Sentry s & # "The narrowing of the gaps between the main warring parties in the South Sudanese conflict is welcome news of the agreement. However, inclusive peace is the only peace that will be sustainable.
Brian Adeba, Deputy Director of Policy, emphasized the need to avoid "the concentration of power in a few hands to prevent the return of war." [19659004"Laquestionlitigieusedesfrontièresdel'Etatexigelaplusgrandeindépendanceetimpartialitédanssagestionpourdissuaderlesmachinationspolitiquesquifavorisentunparti"adéclaréAdebadansuncommuniquésurleprocessusdepaixauSoudanduSudunaccordétroitentrelesélitesnerésoudrapaslesproblèmesquisévissentauSoudanduSud"ajoutantqu'"enfaituntelaccordpourraitsemerlesgrainesd'unautrecycledeconflit"
" The political leaders of South Sudan include President Kiir and SPLM-IO the Machar leader, n & # 39; have not demonstrated the leadership needed to bring real peace and responsible governance to South Sudan. We remain skeptical that they can oversee a peaceful and timely transition to democracy and good governance. The United States will not guarantee any agreement and will not fund – or call any additional resources from the United Nations – the transitional government, in the absence of a sustained and demonstrated commitment for peace, inclusion, financial accountability and good governance. "The statement of Trump admiration is partly read.
With the introduction above, here are the five contentious issues on the peace process in South Sudan with some observations and recommendations:
1- The Council of States
The Agreement provides that the National Transitional Legislature (NL) shall consist of the National Transitional Legislative Assembly (TNLA) and the Council of States.
It provides for the expansion and reconstitution of the TNLA up to 550 members in a power ratio of 332 to the present TGoNU, from 128 to SPLM / A-IO, from 50 to the SSOA , from 30 to OPP and from 10 to FD.
However, the agreement does not have an explicit provision for the continuity of the current Council of States. it has not expressly provided for the dissolution of the current Council of States.
Article 3.4 of the Agreement states that "At the time of publication of the final report of the IBC, the Council of States will be reconstituted as follows: to be recommended by the IBC. However, if the IBC does not publish its final report, the Council of States will be reconstituted according to the results of the referendum and as indicated in the TCSR (Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan). "
Article 3.5 of the Agreement further stipulates that" the President of the Council of States will be from the SPLM-IO, Vice President of TGoNU, who will be a woman, and vice-president of the SSOA. For purposes of regional inclusivity required in a body representing the states, the president and vice-presidents must come from a different region. "
The agreement did not comply the percentages of power sharing in the Council of States between the parties The reconstitution of the Council of States provided for in Article 3.4 as a result of the IBC recommendation and the result of the planned referendum are silent on the percentages of power sharing between the parties to the Council of States.
The agreement has not mandated the IBC and the Referendum Commission on the Number and Frontiers of States (RCNBS) to assign a ratio of power to the parties in the Council of States, and the expression of Article 3.4 that "… if the IBC does not publish its final report, the Council of States must be reconstituted according to the result of the referendum and as indicated in the TCRSS" is problematic because the TCRSS Article 58 states: "The Council of States shall include: (a) all South Sudanese who are represented in the Council of States of the Republic of Sudan by reason of their membership of that Council; and (b) twenty representatives appointed by the President "that have already been implemented since 2011.
To avoid a stalemate on the states during implementation, all the ambiguities above should be corrected by including provisions in the Agreement on Sharing Power in the reconstituted State Council, regardless of the recommendation of the IBC and the NCBSN, if the parties do not share power in the Council of States, with the exception of In Article 3.5, an explicit provision should also be included in the agreement to ensure clarity and proper application.
recommends that a balanced sharing report be included in the agreement. jurisdiction over the composition of the Council of States between the existing TGoNU and the parties (of opposition) This is mainly for two reasons:
First the Council of States is an institutio n very powerful which, in accordance with Article 59 of the TCRSS, is inter alia competent to "(a) initiate legislation on the system of decentralized government and other matters of interest to States and adopt such legislation in the light of two-thirds majority of all representatives,
b) issue resolutions and guidelines to guide all levels of government …
c) supervise d) monitor repatriation, relief, resettlement, rehabilitation the reintegration of returnees and displaced persons, and the reconstruction of disaster areas and areas affected by the conflict
; ) to request statements from Governors and National Ministers concerned regarding the effective implementation of the decentralized system and the devolution of powers and other matters related to States;
(f) to legislate for the promotion of the culture of peace, reconciliation and community harmony among all peoples of States;
g) approves changes in state, capital and boundary names … "
Second, members of the current Council of States did not have never been elected by the people of South Sudan to the current states of the Council.
The present Council of States is composed of South Sudanese who were representatives to the Council of States of the Republic of Sudan prior to the South Sudan's independence, plus other members appointed by the president.In general, all members took office at the Council of States by Article 58 of the Constitution (appointments or transfers of the Council of States of Sudan), not a direct mandate (vote) of the people of South Sudan to the current Council of States, which is why they are more loyal to the President than to the people of Southern Sudan. is also the reason why the division of powers in the Council of States will have to it should be balanced in the current agreement (proposal) between the government and the parties. This would enable the Council of States to effectively fulfill its mandate, particularly with regard to the reforms of the ARCSS that will need their role.
2- The Controversial Number of States
The Agreement provides that Within two weeks of the ARCSS signing revitalized, the Executive Secretariat of the IGAD, taking into account the decision of the 55th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of IGAD held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 30 to 31 January 2016, will appoint an Independent Boundary Commission (IBC) for the Republic of South Sudan "to examine the number of states of the Republic of South Sudan, their limits, the composition and restructuring of the Council of States and make recommendations in this regard".
The IBC, according to the agreement, will consist of fifteen (15) members "having the necessary skills and expertise", five (5) members appointed by the GToNU, five (5) appointed members by opp Exclusion Groups: two (2) SPLM / A-IO, one (1) SSOA, one (1) FD, one (1) OPP and five (5) " highly experienced members "appointed by the C5 States (South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Algeria and Chad).
The Agreement further provides that the IBC shall be chaired by one of its non-South Sudanese members "who shall have recognized status and integrity and who should have held a senior position of judicial, executive or administrative power in its country of origin. "
Article 4.11 of the Agreement states that" the Parties agree to abide by the recommendations of the IBC and authorize the Executive Secretariat from IGAD to in the ARCSS revitalized as an addendum. The Parties agree to fully implement the recommendations at the beginning of the transition period. "
The IBC, l & # 39 Agreement, will complete its work within a maximum of ninety (90) days which can not be extended.
Articles 4.13; 4.14; and 4.15 of the Agreement provide, respectively, that:
"In the unlikely event that the CIB does not submit its final report before the end of its term, the IPC will automatically be transformed on the 90th day of its mandate into the Referendum Commission. the Number and Limits of States (RCNBS) of the Republic of South Sudan
"The RCNBS will work under the direct supervision and support of the African Union and IGAD, and will proceed to the referendum before the end of the eight agreed (8) months before the transition period.
"The referendum will be held on the number and the limits of the States of the Republic of South Sudan, taking into account the positions advanced by the Parties.The question or the set of questions to be put to the referendum will be the even for the whole country, unless it is decided in the NCSR that each state must have a different issue or set of issues more understandable to the people. "
In their statement to the press on the (proposed) Accord on outstanding governance issues, the FD noted that "while citing the decision of the 55th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of IGAD in January 2016, Instead, he went on to reaffirm an illegality by maintaining the 32 states during the transitional period. "
The statement signed by Pa & Gum Amum Okiech on behalf of the FD argued that" the idea of organizing r a referendum within five (5) months before the end of the pre-transition period is a ploy to entrench the 32 states, as it is not possible to hold a valid referendum within this time frame. During this period, only the current GToNU will be responsible for conducting the referendum, including any related issues, such as questions that do not lend themselves to the "yes" or "no" options. How can a referendum be conducted in a situation where a party to the conflict will be in power and will control the state, including security, registration, production of voting materials? There will be no conducive atmosphere and sufficient political space to allow other political parties to campaign and spread their opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of the arrangement between 32 States, among others. "
" To begin to see with the issue of the 32 states and the decision of the Council of Ministers of IGAD mentioned above. The 32 states that were imposed in violation of Articles 1.6, 15.2 and 15.3 of Chapter I of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCSS) constitute an illegality and a violation of the law. ARCSS and the Republic of South Sudan (2011). He can not be allowed to stay in a revitalized agreement. So, we reject it ", the statement added.
" If the idea of creating a commission is not a ploy to maintain the 32 states, it will be better to apply the original decision of the 55th Session. Extraordinary IGAD Council of Ministers in the letter and in the spirit. This should mean setting up a Commission of Inclusive Terms to discuss and resolve the problem within a month or so. The default position, in case of failure, is to return to 10 states. "
Indeed, the decision of the 55th extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers of IGAD to which Article 4.1 of the (proposed) Agreement on the nomination of an IBC acknowledged that the creation on 28 states was "inconsistent with the terms of ARCSS" and urged the parties "… in the absence of agreement on the creation of new states, to suspend any action on the implementation of new states until a participatory National Boundary Commission including all ARCSS Parties reviews the proposed states and their boundaries, and that this process is important. examination takes place for a maximum period of one month.
The decision of the Council of Ministers of IGAD In addition, he told the parties that "in the event that there are pending disputes at the end of the review process" of the delimitation commission, the parties should revert to the provisions of the agreement. nt. "
But many things have changed on the ground since the decision taken in 2016 at the 55th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of IGAD." On the one hand, IGAD continues to recognize the existing TGoNU and, by extension, the parts constituting the TGoNU
On the other hand, the TGoN has increased from 28 to 32 and increased the states, presumably with the full agreement of the parties. participated in the UNGASS, what they could argue (in part) in accordance with the decision of the 55th extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers of IGAD itself, in particular the point which speaks of an agreement on the creation of new states. "
But indeed the rest of the exiled or excluded ARCSS parties have the right to protest since those who remained did not represent them as at the signing of the ARCSS in 2015.
Now, what should be the solution? to the question of States? We already know that the increase of states is a violation of the ARCSS and that many states lack competent institutions (infrastructure) and that it is economically difficult to manage effectively many states. We know that our people had asked for more counties from the ten old states.
However, now many of our innocent and mostly uninformed populations are already celebrating increased thought power and resources have been reconciled without understanding the implications. Removing states from them by returning to the 10 states can have enormous implications with the possibility of creating another conflict.
On the other hand, many others also think that the new states are bad and have tempered their borders and their peaceful coexistence. Of course, a credible referendum is not possible within the allotted time.
Nevertheless, Article 4.9 of the (proposed) Agreement on Outstanding Governance Issues states that "The IBC must endeavor to adopt its final report. number of states of the Republic of South Sudan, their limits, the composition and restructuring of the Council of States and make recommendations thereon) by consensus.If the consensus is not reached, the CIB will adopt its final report by a decision made by two-thirds of all its members that will include at least seven (7) of its South Sudanese members. "
It's there that the parties oppose it States should clearly identify the grievances of the affected communities and, with the present UNO, without bias (political), reach a solution, preferably by adding more states or by merging certain states or counties, where appropriate. applicable.
the parties (including the current UN GToU) should use very well by showing leadership in reaching a settlement on the states and related issues, thus avoiding discussions on a referendum on the same. This is possible. It takes courage and honesty.
3- The problem is not limited to the number of states
In November 2015, after the signing of the ARCSS, the South Sudanese parliament amended the TCRSS, easing the number of states stipulated in the Constitution and conferring on the President the power to create more states, to appoint governors, and so on.
"Article 162 (1) which sets at ten the number of States the President may, for the purpose of performing effectively functions of the Government, divide the territory of the Republic of Sudan to the States and other regions in accordance with the procedures prescribed by law or the provisions of the law which the House of Legislature may adopt. "Sudan Tribune reported.
"Section 164 (1) which defined the current state legislatures, the manner of their composition, was amended to add that other members will be appointed on this point as well. The Mirror Nation reported that the "28-state issue also attracted criticism as it was passed by the National Legislature." Several MPs left parliament accusing the president of bias. that the parliament had illegally adopted the order of creation because it lacked a quorum. "
In December 2015, Radio Tamazuj reported that the Council of States" ratified the constitutional amendments on the establishment of 28 States, time, opposition and others only talk about reaching an agreement with the government on the number of states for the purposes of the transition period.
However, in reality, all should focus on much more than just agreeing on it. Indeed, the government can reach an agreement with the states (opposition, parties) on the states today or at any time according to the ARCSS process led by Igad but the President could later divide the country in more or less states, citing the controversial constitutional amendment or the order of establishment approved by the Council of States. This could happen especially when the ARCSS expires before the promulgation of a democratic permanent constitution with a clearly defined number of states, removing the powers believed to have been conferred on the president to divide the country into states.
One option is to challenge the constitutional amendment. "And the court order in South Sudan, but experience shows that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get a just decision on the issue since the judiciary is still not independent of the executive in many ways., the best is that all parties achieve a balanced division of powers in the Council of States through the ongoing agreement on the revitalization of the ARCSS (proposed), since it is the Council that will have the power to approve or carry out reforms.States issues and also stop the same to be centralized at Office of the President.
4- South Sudanese should reject the old system of the three provinces (Regions)
A proposal to return South Sudan to the three former regions (Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile) was officially presented for the Last time last month in the Khartoum proposal which stipulated that "In the unlikely event that the IBC fails to make its recommendations before the end of the pre-transition period, the Republic of South Sudan will have as regions the three former provinces, according to their limits of 1 January 1956 This solution must be adopted on a temporary basis until the number and the limits of the States have been agreed. "
This provision (proposal) was overwhelmingly rejected, so that it has slowly disappeared since.
In fact, it is not a good reason to bring South Sudan back in the old system of the three regions (provinces) .This system has no basis in the Constitution of South Sudan, with regard to the structures of government, how will they be directed and which body (institution, region) will have the power to do what, where and how.
This further complicates matters as our communities are still heavily militarized, have several unresolved border disputes, reconciliation between they have not yet taken place and we still lack competent institutions to settle disputes peacefully.These three regions are mainly those who have lost contact with their inhabitants on the ground because of the corrupt ion and lack of services. These politicians hope that once the system is created, they would find seats through nominations in these regional bodies since the elections will not take place soon from where they intend to go. Extend the government to the center on behalf of the regional governments – in addition, or contrary to
The demand of the people of South Sudan is the devolution of more powers and resources to states and lower levels of government, do not centralize again the government in the form of the three former regions that will make it even more difficult for South Sudanese people to integrate as a single country.
Some states were created after repeated conflicts between them and bring them back under one region with the same people that they fought until their own states could be nothing less than creating more conflicts. The unity in and between these ancient regions could be created in the future in social and cultural, not political, forms because it is neither possible nor good for the country to base its policy on the three previous regions.
The incumbent GToNU and other parties agree on an inclusive, fair and reasonable way to hear about the number of states. It would be ideal for them to be able to use the path provided for in the (proposed) Agreement on outstanding governance issues without politicizing and / or resorting to the Referendum.
South Sudanese want to develop their states according to how they are delimited or attributed. The government and the opposition should simply resolve the grievances of communities and states, counties, borders and unjustly attributed states, but not create a new system that will further complicate the situation.
5- The Sharing of Power in the States and Local Government
In Article 5.1 of the Agreement on Outstanding Governance Issues, the parties agreed that "the rate of shared responsibility at the state and local levels will be agreed by the parties before the revitalized ARCSS is signed".
The position of the TGONU is that they retain 65% and the Oppositions 35%
The opposition parties, meanwhile, want 49% for themselves and 51% for the outgoing TGoNU .
The mediation proposed 55% for the TGoNU holder and 45% for the opposition parties (SPLM-IO 27%, SSOA 10% and OPP 8%)
The agreement stipulates furthermore that "the FD has three ministers In this regard, the UN Secretary-General and all parties should be able to negotiate in good faith, to make the necessary compromises and to bring a comprehensive peace to the people of the South." Sudan
Roger Alfred Yoron Modi, a South Sudanese journalist, is the former editorial director of Juba Monitor Newspaper and former editor of Bakhita Radio and can be contacted via email: rogeryoron @ gmail .com
The opinion expressed here is solely the viewpoint of the writer.The veracity of any claim made is the responsibility of the & # 39; 39, not PaanLuel Wel Media (PW) If you wish to submit an opinion article, a comment or an analysis news, please email it to [email protected] . The PaanLuel Wël Media (PW) website reserves the right to modify or reject the material before its publication. Please include your full name, a short biography, e-mail address, city and country where you are writing.
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