Fwd: [sudans-john-ashworth] Swearing-in of National Dialogue Steering Committee delayed

[Elisabeth Janaina]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John Ashworth <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 May 2017 at 12:06 PM
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] Swearing-in of National Dialogue Steering Committee delayed
To: Group <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>

South Sudan Suspends National Dialogue Steering Committee

May 08, 2017 3:40 PM
Waakhe Simon Wudu
John Tanza

VOA - JUBA/WASHINGTON —

Efforts to start a "national dialogue" in war-ravaged South Sudan are
on hold again after a key steering committee could not muster enough
members for a quorum.

The government says more than half the committee members appointed by
President Salva Kiir have yet to report for duty.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said Sunday that officials were
forced to delay the swearing-in of the committee that was to oversee
the dialogue.

"It has been postponed until further notice because the percentage of
the steering committee was only 20 percent. So we are waiting [for]
committee members at least to be 50-plus [percent] before they are
sworn in," Ateny said.

Kiir said in December that the national dialogue would begin sometime
in early March, but some observers now doubt whether the long-awaited
discussions will start at all.

Ateny said last month that financial and technical challenges
prevented the swearing-in of the committee charged with steering the
dialogue.

Activist says trust needed

Civil society activist Rajab Muhandis said the government has been
inconsistent in its effort to get the dialogue off the ground ever
since Kiir announced the initiative. He said the delays weaken the
initiative and lead citizens to lose hope in the government's ability
to end South Sudan's three-and-half-year conflict.

Muhandis, who heads the South Sudanese Network for Democracy and
Elections, said the indefinite suspension occurred because the
steering committee is too large.

He said the government must have a clear channel of communication to
build trust among the people that the dialogue will take place and
make a difference.

"Putting together a robust committee that is sizable enough to run the
process effectively will give people a sign of hope. And the committee
should talk to people that the nation is moving toward a national
dialogue. Now we only talk about forming a committee," Muhandis told
VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

He said the government needs to engage other parties, including all
warring parties, adding "it is the only way to make the dialogue
genuine."

The government has been fighting rebels led by former Vice President
Riek Machar since December 2013. Other rebel groups have recently
emerged as the country struggles with food shortages and a
humanitarian crisis that has displaced more than two million people.

Call for Kiir to step down

Meanwhile, a prominent retired South Sudanese Anglican clergyman has
called on President Kiir to step down.

Reverend Canon Clement Janda was recently asked by Kiir to sit on the
dialogue's steering committee, but he declined the offer, saying the
process is not inclusive.

"If I knew it was a genuine process, that the people could dialogue in
order to bring peace to South Sudan, I would not hesitate," Janda
said.

Janda calls the national dialogue a "monologue," adding it has "not
changed in substance."

"Only when they are ready to sit together with those that they
disagree [with], then we begin to see light at the end of the tunnel,"
Janda said.

https://www.voanews.com/a/south-sudan-suspends-national-dialogue-steering-committee/3843235.html

END
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John Ashworth

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