Festus Mogae: Peace deal is ‘alive’

The chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation, Festus Mogae, says the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan is “still alive” and must be implemented.

This remark comes days after a statement by the former First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, to the BBC Hard Talk Program that the peace agreement has collapsed.

Speaking to the media at the end of the eleventh plenary meeting of the JMEC in Juba last night, Mr Mogae, insisted that the peace agreement is still alive.

“The Agreement is alive and well, and has to be implemented… What makes the agreement alive is that there are representatives of the opposition who are involved and there are others who are currently not taking part, but they have not said they would not take part,” Mr Mogae said.

“We are still awaiting their arrival, I don’t need to mention names, but there were several groups who ought to have been in the meeting but who were not, but have not said they were boycotting the meeting. And so, we have said the agreement is alive because we are not giving up on the peace because there is no option anyway,” he explained.

For his part, the national Minister of Information, Michael Makuei, said the government has agreed to include all groups in the implementation of the peace agreement.

He said some groups that have taken up arms against the government including the former First Vice President, Riek Machar, are welcomed to join the peace process on condition that they denounce violence.

“The government is ready for inclusivity and by inclusivity here means bringing in those who feel that they are outside. The government is ready to negotiate with anybody provided that, that person denounces violence, because it is violence which is problematic,” Mr Makuei said.
“If you are aggrieved, you don’t need to resort to violence, but you come forward and present your case and it will be listened to,” he said.

“We are not saying that we don’t want anybody; we are calling upon everybody to denounce violence and move forward so that we sit and talk as South Sudanese,” Mr Makuei said.

He added: “If Riek Machar denounces violence and he wants to come [back home] he is a South Sudanese—I said he is a South Sudanese, he has the right to come back to South Sudan … provided that he denounces violence.”

But Makuei also said members of JMEC criticized the worsening humanitarian situation in the country as a result of the violence along highways; they appealed to the international community to provide assistances.