Press release
Washington, DC, August 30, 2014 (SSNA) — The office of the SPLM in the U.S.A, have been following with keen interest, the recent developments on the peace process being mediated by the East African regional bloc; the Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD) currently being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and particularly the recently signed Protocol on Transitional Government of National Unity(TGONU) in South Sudan; by IGAD’s heads of States and Governments, as well as representatives of states governments, and noted with alarm and disappointment how IGAD made a quick about face in its role as a neutral mediator between the warring parties in the South Sudanese conflict; to become an outright partaker in the conflict by siding with president Salva Kiir as the incumbent leader in that imposed protocol without giving both sides a chance to study the said document.
This is a willful premeditated plan to impose a tyrant and an illegitimate leader on the suffering people of this country. A president who have targeted a section of his people solely on ethnic grounds, and exterminated twenty thousand innocent unarmed Nuer civilians based on their ethnicity, should not be enabled and rewarded to remain in power as that is considered an affront to those whom he has exterminated in cold blood.
Moreover, it’s a negligent disregard to the proven age-old conflict mediation/resolution mechanisms throughout mankind’s vast history of quest for just solutions to conflicts. If IGAD is at all concerned about its image as an honest and neutral mediator who would still command the respect of the downtrodden people of South Sudan and all the peace loving people of the world, it must shelve this bias document and continue to further redeem itself by adhering to the principle of impartiality in its mediation efforts.
As stakeholders in this conflict, we care about our people and wish to negotiate a just and lasting peace to this war so that our country can experience peace and normalcy and our people can begin to enjoy dividends of peace.
However, IGAD needs to be serious in its quest for peace in South Sudan, otherwise it might force us to call for a different forum that would spearhead this important task of peace making between the two warring parties.
Signed by: