JUBA
Many South Sudanese are skeptical about a recent deal between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar on the formation of a transitional government within 60 days, saying this should be preceded by dialogue, accountability and reconciliation.
"Formation of the transitional government is not the solution to all the problems," Andigo Onyoti Nyikwac, federal lawmaker for Upper Nile State's Pachoda County and minority house leader, told Anadolu Agency.
"You need to know what the root causes are, which brought this bitterness within the people," he said. "After identifying all of them, then we all come to discuss them in a sort of national consensus dialogue so that all of us decide on the way forward."
On June 10, Kiir and Machar agreed to a 60-day timeline for drawing up a transitional government in hopes of resolving the conflict.
The agreement came during an extraordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a trading bloc of East African nations, in Addis Ababa.
"In 60 days, what is going to happen to the rebels?" asked MP Nyikwac. "What is going to happen to these rebels after the transitional government is formed?"
He wondered if they would be incorporated into the national army.
"And what will be the future of this army?" Nyikwac asked.
The nascent African country slid into chaos late last year after Kiir accused a group of army leaders allied to Machar of attempting to stage a coup against his government.
Hundreds of thousands have since been displaced by the subsequent fighting, while the ongoing conflict has put large swathes of the population at risk of serious humanitarian crisis.
In May, the warring camps signed an IGAD-mediated peace deal in Addis Ababa, following a January cessation of hostilities agreement. Neither deal, however, has succeeded in ending hostilities by both sides.
-Short-lived-
MP Nyikwac said reaching consensus on the root causes of the conflict and addressing burning issues – such as governance, insecurity, national unity, the reform of security agencies, corruption and the struggling economy – should precede the formation of a new government.
"After we have agreed on all issues and the transformation we need to do in our country, then we come and say, 'This will be the transitional government with specific mandates and timeframe'," Nyikwac told AA.
Simon Ater Dut, leader of Unity State's youth association in Juba, believes the transitional government can only bring about short-term peace.
"If this agreement is implemented, it will help solve the crisis in the short term" he told AA. "People will accept this because they are afraid of what they have seen during the fighting and they want it to stop."
He stressed the need to quickly come up with a tangible solution that would establish sustainable peace.
"We need people to sit down, talk, and forgive one another for what has happened," Dut said. "If the leaders don't… solve their differences, they are bound to happen [i.e., come to blows] again."
-Accountability-
For his part, Deng Dau Malek, MP for Jonglei State's Twic East County and chairman of the greater Bor parliamentarians, underlined the need for accountability.
"We welcome the issue of interim government, but we are very much concerned about the issue of blanket peace," he told AA.
"We need to embrace the issue of accountability, reconciliation and the issue of a dialogue at a national level," he said.
Malek urged the government to take the lead in tackling the thorny twin issues of justice and reconciliation.
MP Nyikwac, meanwhile, voiced similar sentiments.
"There is no justice without accountability," he insisted.
"People should declare whatever they have done so that we are able to forgive one another," said the lawmaker.
"If there is no accountability, then there will be no healthy peace in this country."
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