The United South Sudan Party (USSP)May 26, 2013 (SSNA) — In the light of the recent developments in the Republic of South Sudan, the United South Sudan Party (USSP) welcomes the Joint Statement on Ending Conflict in Jonglei State released on 18th May 2013 by the following:
While we in the USSP are grateful with the initiative called upon, we are also disappointed that the statement narrows the problems of Republic of South Sudan to the state of Jonglei only. This we believe is unhelpful and will not bring an overall and sustainably peace to the country.
The problems in Jonglei are microcosm of what is happening in South Sudan. The only difference between Jonglei and the other states is that the people of Jonglei have opted to take up arms earlier than the other states. Without the least doubt the problems squarely mirrors the widespread ill-governance of the country by SPLM.
We in the USSP believe that the United States reports on Human Rights for South Sudan since independence and other reports by relevant agencies clearly identify and place the failure of the governance to current ruling party.
It is unfortunate that the Special Representative of the Secretary General of United Nations in Juba with a mandate under UN Security Council Chapter 7 has totally failed to actualise her duties due to unbelievable inaction.
In a country where the president has been quoted on several occasions of presenting his country’s problems in this way and I quote: "We fought for freedom justice and equality," Kiir added, about the decades-long war against Khartoum. "Yet, once we got to power, we forgot what we fought for and began to enrich ourselves at the expense of our people."
And:
"Many people in South Sudan are suffering and yet some government officials simply care about themselves. The credibility of our government is on the line," Kiir said in a letter seen by AFP Monday. (By Giulio Petrocco | AFP – Mon, Jun 4, 2012). The president’s statements are but obvious signs of desperation and a call for help from all parties including the international community.
This being the case, solving Jonglei’s problems in isolation will not bring peace and stability to the country, and especially given the fact that now the international community appears to be concerned, the other states may also be drawn into rebellions as a way to draw attention to their own plight. Therefore USSP believes that the best solution lies in a national conference to be held outside the country and preferably in a neutral venue to deliberate on the problems of the country.
For this conference to be effective, it is important that all the stake holders are involved and these are: all the political parties, civil society groups, and all the various armed groups, the Diaspora, Women groups and Youth groups.
The USSP thus calls upon the signatories to the aforementioned ‘Joint Statement on Ending Conflict in Jonglei State’ to reconsider widening the remit of their statement to cover the entire country as a once and for all solution.
Yours sincerely,