Oyet puts on Odwar’s shoes with bigger vision for country, party
The newly appointed Deputy Chairperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, is on a mission to save the country from the spinning political deadlock in pursuit of a breakthrough.
Speaking to The City Review in an exclusive yesterday, Oyet who serves as the First Deputy Speaker of the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA), said he would strive for his movement’s mandate not to return the country to war.
He added that his two priorities are to direct his party towards development and to protect the citizens’ civic space, irrespective of their socio-political, economic, and cultural backgrounds.
He said if achieved, these priorities would address areas of contention and the root causes of the conflict, and that it would also steer his party towards success by getting it registered as a political party.
“My obligation and priority to the country is to ensure that the root causes of the conflict are addressed in the agreement by ensuring the implementation of security arrangements, observing cessation of hostilities, permanent ceasefire, unification of forces, their deployment around the country, phase one and phase two exercises of unification of forces, and deployment should be done,” Oyet said.
He promised to ensure the effectiveness of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) of the former combatants and the civilians to restore security, law, and order.
“The Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) of the former combatants is a necessity. DDR to our civil population who are carrying guns is also of paramount importance. This is to restore security, law and order in the country, “Oyet said.
The official promised to ensure that the permanent constitution and the pending acts were amended to transition the country into democracy.
“We expect economic reforms, we expect political reforms, and the permanent constitution-making that will bring a federal system of government in South Sudan.
“The guarantee of political rights of every individual, amending and reforming electoral laws and political parties’ acts, to ensure that we have a full-pledged multiparty democracy in South Sudan,” Oyet explained.
“We expect economic recovery, reconstruction of the war-affected areas, infrastructural development, and we expect to use the oil revenue to diversify the economy. All these are part of the package that comes together with the peace agreement. And for that matter, we want the peace agreement to be implemented in full and in letter and spirit. “
In the last few days, there have been bitter verbal exchanges between the two principal parties to the peace agreement. This comes after the SPLM/A-IO suspended their participation in the ceasefire monitoring bodies in protest of what they called the continued attacks on their forces by the SSDPF.
However, Oyet said the First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar, was ready to meet President Salva Kiir at any convenient time set by the latter.
He added that they admired the political will of SPLM-IG, saying it was the basis of their protest on the security mechanisms organs and that once there is a political will, they would be attending the security mechanisms meetings as before. The deputy speaker took over from the former minister of mining, Henry Odwar, who decamped to the Kit-Gwang faction last year.
Gov’t promises
On Tuesday, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s (SPLM), Interim Secretary General, Peter Lam Both, assured Dr Riek Machar of their commitment to addressing issues that led to the withdrawal of SPLM/A-IO from the security mechanism organs as soon as possible.
Lam said Kiir was working to ensure that the recent concerns raised by the SPLM/A-IO are addressed to enable them to return and continue discharging their duties to pave the way for the graduation of the necessary unified forces.
He said they would soon discuss the unification of command once the Presidential Advisor on Security Affairs, Tut Gatluak Manime, returns from Khartoum.
On Monday, Tut led a team to consult with the IGAD Chair in Khartoum after the president issued an order for the unified command that was rejected by the SPLM/A-IO.
Also, Lam informed Dr. Machar of President Kiir’s assurance of protection following the heavy security deployment in the city that surrounded his residence on Sunday.
He said the deployment was not ill-driven but a routine security measure so that criminals might not cause panic by randomly shooting the gun anywhere in the city or near Dr Machar’s residence.
In a meeting with Lam, he also assured the citizens of not returning the country to war, but rather pushing for full implementation of the revitalised peace agreement.
Blame game
This is just days after President Kiir heaped blame on the opposition for the delay in the graduation of forces by failing to reduce the ranks of its officers, whom he said were all seniors and without soldiers.
But in response, the Director for Information and Public Relations in the office of the First Vice President, Puok Both Baluang, dismissed this, saying that it was a tactic by the SPLM-IG and SSPDF to delay the unification of command and graduation of forces.
Puok added that the major area of contention was the sharing ratio of the forces’ command between the SPLM and all the opposition forces, which he said should be 50:50, while the government needs a 60:40 sharing ratio with 40 for the opposition.
