Deng Athuai Mawiir, leading South Sudanese civil society member criticized the manner in which the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an east African bloc mediating the peace talks between different warring parties to the conflict , charging that the former has never given the latter an opportunity to exhaust discussions over contentious matters.

“The way IGAD has been managing this mediation of the peace process has been the source of concern. The proposals which they bring up as alternative to contested proposal like the recent compromise agreement are always controversial and yet it seems these mediators do not want to learn”, said Deng. He added: “The best thing they can do is to allow the parties to negotiate first and then come up with something later.

The activist said people were expecting the current negotiation as the last round because people were in need of peace by all available means possible before the end of the month. “Of course our people need peace now, not tomorrow. There is no question about that. They have suffered a lot and these leaders seem to have developed don’t care attitude because they are all after personal interests. The death and suffering of our people does not bother them. If they do, nothing would have stopped them from signing the peace long time ago”. 

Athuai said South Sudan was not a property of individuals to hold its people hostage to their own interests and personal ambitions. “There are people who think that without them, there is no country, there is no South Sudan. This is the kind of thinking which is killing our people and the country. For me, I think this is a wrong thinking and our people should come out and tell them frankly that South Sudan does not belong to individuals and it is not their property to our hold our people hostage to their interest”, he said. The activist argued that no one group of people owns South Sudan. South Sudan, he said, is an independent country which belongs to all the tribes who fought together in pursuit for an independent state from neighboring Sudan.

Deng Athuai Mawiir Rehan is Chairperson, South Sudan Civil Society Alliance and was last year Head of Civil Society Delegation to the peace process. He survided being shot by unknown gunman in July