Hon. Elizabeth James Bol, member of specialized committee on Water Resources and Irrigation speaking to Eye Radio on 10th Nov 2023. Photo: Charles Wote/Eye Radio

The citizens are demanding a public apology from the presidency with actions to deliver services to all people as a way of reconciling the country, this’s according to one of the lawmakers.

Hon. Elizabeth James Bol, a member of the specialized committee on Water Resources and Irrigation at the reconstituted TNLA made the remarks at the launch of the Women’s Rights Report on Compensation and Reparations in Juba on Monday, November 10, 2023.

Hon. Elisabeth says some South Sudanese who spoke to the lawmakers have recommended that they want an apology from the Presidency with action on service delivery.

In 2019, President Salva Kiir apologized to the people of Wau for the suffering the conflict has inflicted on them.

He made the remarks during his peace tour in the Barh El Ghazal region.

“You people of Wau I want to apologize to you for all that happened in 2013 and 2016 ” Kiir said during a rally in Wau town in March 2019.

President Kiir said even if he has done nothing wrong, he sees himself as mistaken.

“If this is SPLM that caused the confusion over the power struggle and turned their guns on you, bringing this suffering, I see myself mistaken even if I have not done anything wrong.”

‘This is if my party is the one that brought suffering like this,” he added.

Some of the lawmakers who spoke to Eye Radio say the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing and the Compensation and Reparation Authority should regain the properties of individuals that were grabbed during the years of civil war.

Others say the two commissions should promote national reconciliation and healing and provide an avenue for psychological support to the war-affected communities.

She says she expects both President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar to admit the impact of the conflict on the population and issue a public apology to the citizens.

This, according to her, will ensure true reconciliation and healing in the country.

“We were having a very important recommendation that the presidency should issue or make the decision for a public apology or acknowledgement of the effect of the conflict on the citizens,” Elizabeth said.

“There should be a public apology to the citizens because it will be another way to achieve reconciliation and forgiveness,” she said.

“If there is no reconciliation, if there is no forgiveness by the citizens, we will not have even an effective and efficient transition justice process in the country.”

However, when asked about the previous public apology by President Kiir, the lawmaker says South Sudan citizens need a genuine public apology that is followed by service delivery.

“We don’t want words, we want actions. And how do they want actions? We want a very effective delivery of service to the citizens, once the citizens have relative peace in the country and they have effective social services to be delivered by the government, then that will be another way of direct forgiveness by the citizens towards the country,” Hon. Elisabeth said.

In October, the National Council of Ministers approved two bills for the establishment of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing and the Compensation and Reparation Authority.

Chapter five of the 2018 peace accord obligates the unity government to establish the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing, the Hybridge Court for South Sudan, and the Compensation and Reparation Authority.

The bill which is yet to be tabled before the national legislature will address the legacy of conflict and promote national reconciliation and healing.

The healing commission is also mandated by the peace agreement to inquire into all aspects of human rights violations and abuses, breaches of the rule of law, and excessive abuses of power committed against all persons in South Sudan by state, non-state actors and or agents, and allies.

Also, to receive applications from alleged victims, identify and determine their right to remedy as well as identify perpetrators of violations and crimes prescribed in the agreement.