It is a great honour
for me to address the Assembly for the first time as
Vice-President of the Republic of South Sudan.
First, I would like to express the heartfelt
condolences of the Government and the people of South
Sudan to the people and the Government of the Republic
of Kenya, in particular the families of those affected
by the brutal and inhuman act of terror in the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi. We condemn all acts of terrorism and
pledge our full cooperation and support to all efforts
geared towards ridding the region and indeed the globe
of terrorism.
I convey sincere my gratitude, as well as that
of President Kiir Mayardit and the people of South
Sudan, to the United Nations, in particular the Security
Council, the countries of the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development, the Troika, and all people
of goodwill for diplomatically helping us to bring to
an end to the conflict that had devastated our country
for decades. We are grateful in particular to the
international community for closely monitoring the
difficult implementation of the peace accord. Given the
complexity of the issues involved, the implementation
of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has been
relatively successful, although the protocols of the two
states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, the case of
the contested area of Abyei, and the demarcation of the
borders between South Sudan and the Sudan continue
to impede the full implementation of the peace accord.
Our country is well endowed with abundant
natural resources. Our relations with the Sudan
have recently involved unexpected tensions, with
intermittent suspensions of oil flow through the Sudan.
Inside the South itself, old quarrels dating back to
time immemorial have re-emerged among certain
communities over cattle-grazing and water points.
This became complicated during the last war as guns
of various calibre fell into the hands of unauthorized
civilians. We are working hard as a Government to
entrench peace in all corners of South Sudan. We have
established programmes to rehabilitate and integrate
former rebel groups into our armed forces and society
at large.
We have to build a country literally from scratch,
with non-existent physical and social infrastructure.
This has given us the worst human development
indicators in the world, including high maternal and
infant mortality rates and high illiteracy rates among a
population of over 8 million.
While we recognize that, as humans and as a
Government, we must have made errors of judgment as
we sought to fix a war-devastated country, successful
steps have also been taken, and we appeal for the
goodwill shown to us in those times of difficulty to
continue. We are confronted with the test of adherence
to human rights as a consequence of malicious action
by external hands, rather than of our own making. We
commend any objective criticism and we call on the
experts on South Sudan also to appreciate the bigger
picture of how well the country is run in our nine other
states besides Jonglei.
We are presently running a Government with
acceptable standards of competence. A decentralized
system of governance is the outcome of a conscious
decision taken by South Sudan’s political leadership,
as enshrined in the 2011 transitional Constitution, to
build a broad-based democracy in the post-conflict
setting. We set up the 10 states with popularly elected
governors and democratic legislatures as a nucleus of
good governance. In 2010, President Kiir Mayardit was
democratically and overwhelmingly elected. Our noble
struggle was to actualize the ideals and values of true
democracy, so cherished by our people.
According to our Constitution, the next elections
will be held in 2015. Indeed, on 18 September, our
President publicly confirmed the date. The governing
party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)
will hold another general convention in March 2014 to
freely elect its structures in preparation for the 2015
national general elections.
Let me turn to the issue of women. Women have
suffered discrimination since 1956, with a literacy rate
hardly reaching 18 per cent. The SPLM as a ruling party
is now raising women’s political participation from the
25 per cent in the current Constitution to a minimum
of 35 per cent in the proposed permanent constitution.
In recent years, the National Legislative Assembly,
of which I was twice elected Speaker and where I served
a total of eight years, enacted a good number of laws,
including the Petroleum Revenue Management Act and
the Investment Act, among many others, setting out clear
rules on how we can efficiently and prudently spend
our oil revenues. With the support of our development
partners in the region and internationally, we have now
embarked on the development of our infrastructure.
Numerous infrastructural projects are under way.
In response to the oil shutdown last year, the
Government implemented austerity measures. We
reduced Government spending by 40 per cent, and at
the moment we have considerably increased non-oil
revenue collection. We take seriously our responsibility
to ensure that public funds are properly utilized and
that our spending is rigorously monitored. We are thus
determined to uncompromisingly fight practices of
maladministration, including corruption.
We deeply regret the loss of the lives of the Indian
peacekeepers, the Russian helicopter crew and the
Kenyan and South Sudanese relief workers in Pibor
county. We express our condolences to the families and
the Governments of those who lost their lives. We wish
to assure the international community that such tragic
incidents will not be repeated.
Jonglei state, the most populous, with inaccessible
terrain, has been of particular concern to us as a
Government as well as to the international community.
There is no doubt about that. It has serious security and
infrastructural impediments. We regret the security
impediments in Jonglei and assure the international
community of our Government’s determination to
transform our army, the Sudan People’s Liberation
Army (SPLA), into a professional national army
that respects human rights and the rule of law and is
committed to the protection of civilians.
The President has declared a general amnesty for
the rebel groups, and already two large groups, one
under General Bapin and the second under General
Johnson Oluny, have responded positively. The
President has also ordered the mandatory disarmament
of the civilian population and has taken legal steps to
punish the perpetrators of human rights violations in
Jonglei, including an SPLA Brigade Commander, who
is now under arrest together with 13 soldiers who have
been sentenced to prison terms that range from three to
five years. To date 84 cases of human rights abuses have
been tried in the courts of law. We are determined to
see that the violations committed by some indisciplined
SPLA elements do not go unpunished.
Recently the Government formed a peace and
reconciliation committee headed by top religious
leaders to promote dialogue with all groups, including
rebel groups in Pibor county.
The Government has allowed the United Nations
Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
and other humanitarian bodies unhindered access to
all parts of the country, including, of course, Jonglei
state. Regarding the situation in Pibor county, which
has been of particular concern to all of us, we have
determined, thanks to UNMISS and OCHA, the
number of people who are currently registered for food
distribution in various camps for internally displaced
persons and villages. If that number is compared with
the pre-conflict population of Pibor county, we could
now be relatively relieved at the fact that most of those
who had been unaccounted for are in fact alive and
receiving much-needed humanitarian assistance from
United Nations agencies and other organizations.
Out of the total population of approximately
140,000 in Pibor, for instance, nearly 100,000 people
have been identified in the Pibor bush alone, along with
another 10,000 in Juba City and 26,000 registered as
refugees in neighbouring countries. We appeal from
this rostrum for expeditious relief assistance in various
forms.
Another urgent security demand is the training of
a police force capable of eliminating the high rate of
crime we are experiencing in Pibor county and, indeed,
the entire country. UNMISS, to which we express our
profound appreciation, has helped transform hundreds
of former combatants into a police force conscious of
the rule of law. UNMISS is doing a very commendable
job under its able leadership. The rate of crime caused
by the proliferation of small arms has been alarming.
While our police force has managed to apprehend many
criminals, others are still at large. The Government
is committed to erasing this menace. We refute any
allegation to the effect that such violations are deliberate
and systematic orchestrations.
Our relationship with the Sudan has been a mixture
of cooperation and squabbles. Fundamentally, both
sides acknowledge that there is no alternative to lasting
peace other than harmony and cooperation, given our
shared history. That is why President Kiir Mayardit,
remarkably, visited Khartoum early this month and held
amicable discussions with his counterpart, President
Omer Hassan Al-Bashir of the Sudan. They agreed to
enhance cooperation on all fronts, including allowing
the unhindered flow of oil from South Sudan through
the Sudan.
We call on the parties at war in the Sudan to find
a durable political solution to the conflict, a situation
to which the CPA has provided a workable remedy. We
urge the international community to play a positive,
stepped-up role in narrowing the gap between both
parties. The civil war currently taking place in the Nuba
mountains and Blue Nile regions of the Sudan, as well
as in Darfur, has created an influx of refugees to South
Sudan, and that is a source of concern for us. We appeal
for humanitarian access and supplies for those refugees.
Given our unique knowledge, acquaintance and position
as partners to Khartoum and former comrades-in-arms
in the fighting forces in those two regions, in addition
to our interest in realizing peace along our northern
border, the Government of South Sudan can play a
constructive mediation role if required.
On Abyei, we will continue to cooperate with the
Republic of the Sudan to implement the agreement on
the final status of Abyei through a referendum, set
for October 2013 by the African Union High-Level
Implementation Panel. The African Union Peace and
Security Council and the United Nations Security
Council accepted the proposal as “representing a fair,
equitable and workable solution”. The international
community must therefore ensure that this proposal is
implemented expeditiously.
Our new Government in Juba, energetic and with
new faces, is leaner, so as to reduce expenditure, but
broader in terms of inclusiveness of other political parties
and civil society, even those without party affiliation.
The reshuffle has been highly supported and applauded
countrywide, with a recent opinion poll carried out by
two organizations — CRN and ST — showing 84.7 per
cent for the new team and 92 per cent for the choice of
the new Vice-President.
While many, including our friends, had doubted
our ability to peacefully manage as simple a political
exercise as a cabinet reshuffle, the domestic backing
is revealing. Our immediate agenda for the new phase,
which we are calling phase two, is to improve health
care, education, roads, electricity supply and the
quality of life. We are determined to uproot impunity
and corruption, phenomena which plague post-conflict
States, wherever they may be, and which can derail all
of our efforts and determination to succeed. Based on
its resolve to combat corruption and set a new standard,
our Government has erased 16,000 “ghost names”
it found on the police payroll. We are carrying out a
similar exercise in the military and other organized
forces.
In conclusion, I wish to repeat that we remain
steadfast in our vision of a country at peace with itself
and with its neighbours — a country which is growing
in security, the rule of law and human rights and
progressing towards justice and prosperity. I offer my
sincere thanks to our many partners and friends for their
continued support. We look towards the future confident
of what we, a people emerging from marginalization
and suffering civil strife, can accomplish together.
The Organization has to redouble its efforts to
nurture and reinforce its new Member, South Sudan,
both economically and in its determination to put an
end to human rights violations. It is important for the
United Nations to monitor and promote the complete
implementation of the cooperation agreements reached
between South Sudan and Sudan to cement harmonious
and peaceful coexistence.