South Sudan’s First Vice President, Dr. Riak Machar Teny has called on the non-signatory to revitalize the agreement to join the peace implementation in Juba.
Speaking during the Transitional Justice Mechanism conference in Machar hopes that the Rome Peace talks with holdout are expecting yield good results.
The Rome peace agreement between the Unity government and the group South Sudan Opposition Movement and the army is being mediated by the Saint Egidio community.
The First Vice President emphasized that the next round of negotiation ends in good faith and the holdout groups could take part in the next conference.
“We are hoping that the Rome Peace talks would yield good results so that the holdout groups may join the conference and participate in this process.” Dr. Teny stated.
Dr. Machar believes that the participation of the holdout groups in this transitional justice conference would be very crucial.
The government revealed the upcoming conferences include the Economic, Governance, and Constitutional Making-process conferences.
Dr. Machar stated that in these conferences, all the issues of Reforms will be elaborated exclusively and he encourages the people with grievances to participate in the conferences.
He anticipates that the holdout groups will be able to join them in the remaining three conferences.
The First Vice President says this conference on Transitional Justice Mechanism is crucial because peace without Justice always does not last but peace with justice lasts.
He said Chapter 5 of the R-ARCSS is supposed to be tackled 3 months after the formation of the transitional government of National Unity but due to numerous challenges, it was delayed.
He stated that “This is a very important occasion because peace without Justice always does not last but peace with justice lasts and this chapter is now trying to come up.”
Dr. Machar pointed out that the technical committee was established in March 2022 but after the extension of the transitional period for another 24 months, they are now embarking on it.
He applauds the Technical Committee for carrying out consultations on this conference with the experts from various stakeholders
“We are happy that the technical committee has carried out consultations and this conference is going to be the final consultation for the experts so that we can have legislations to affect the implementation of this chapter 5,” he said.
In March this year, the non-signatory to the 2018 R-ARCSS resumed peace talks in the Vatican facilitated by the Community of Sant’Egidio.
The two peace talks ended in a deadlock, and yet it’s unclear when the Rome peace talks will resume
The holdout group was led by General Thomas Cirilo Swaka the leader of the National Salvation Front, the South Sudan United Front led by General Paul Malong Awan, and the Real Sudan People’s Liberation Movement led by Pagan Amum.