{"id":3535,"date":"2020-08-13T10:05:04","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T10:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onecitizendaily.com\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2020-08-13T11:33:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T11:33:01","slug":"nas-rejects-joining-peace-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/13\/nas-rejects-joining-peace-process\/","title":{"rendered":"NAS Rejects Joining Peace Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Thomas Cirilo Swaka Chairman and Commander – In – Chief of National Salvation Front<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Kiden Stela Mandela<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National\nSalvation Front NAS, one of the hold out groups who are not signatory to the\nRevitalized Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), has stated\nthat it will not join the peace process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAS was\nresponding to a statement made by the Governor of Central Equatoria State,\nEmmanuel Adil on Monday 3rd<\/sup> August, after a meeting he held with leaders\nof the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Internal Province of Central Equatoria\nState.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a story\npublished on No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper on Tuesday 4th<\/sup> August,\nGovernor Emmanuel Adil was quoted as saying the National Salvation Front [NAS],\nheaded by Thomas Cirilo, was a challenge to the state, and in order for the\nconflict to end, dialogue had to be pursued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are\nchallenges in our State my leaders in Christ. This challenge is related to\nsecurity because of the presence of the National Salvation Front. The NAS\nsigned the Khartoum Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA)\u2026. which when we\nwent to Rome, they said we would not sign a new one since we signed a document\ncalled Rome declaration, because they respected the Khartoum COHA which binds\nall of us. In that context, cessation of hostilities means stop fighting, don\u2019t\nmove forces wherever you are, disengage, so that is the meaning,\u201d said Adil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor\nAdil was speaking at his Office in Juba while addressing the delegation of\nBishops of Episcopal Church of South Sudan\n(ECSS),<\/strong> headed by Archbishop Paul Pitia Yugusuk of the Episcopal Internal\nProvince of Central Equatoria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd all of\na sudden things became different with greater Lainya, generally speaking for us\nto end these ongoing conflict we have to pursue the National Salvation [to]\njoin the process as a long term solution. Let us pursue dialogue, the people of\nMukaya were displaced twice this is the third and fourth [times], really the\nsame people look at the trauma they have been exposed [to] and then things\ncontinue like that,\u201d Adil added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response,\nthe Spokesperson of the National Salvation Front, Suba Samuel Manase told No. 1\nCitizen Daily Newspaper in an exclusive interview by phone that the statement\nuttered by the Governor was not in place, stating that NAS did not have\nproblems with the government of Central Equatoria State as long as the\ndecentralization system was concerned in South Sudan. He said the State\nGovernment was supposed to deliver services to the citizens at the counties\nthrough the local governments.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nfunction of the Government of the State does not include pursuing the peace\nwith the nationals that have problems with the national government, so I think\nthat statement is out of place, and the person who is responsible for this\ndoesn\u2019t know the dynamics of politics in the country. So what we know is that\nwe have problems with the Government of Salva Kiir, and if there is any\nnegotiation, it has to be between the government of Kiir and the National\nSalvation Front. The government is responsible for social development of the\nnation, and to the state level,\u201d Suba argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf he is\nable to address the problems within Central Equatoria, what about our forces\nwho are operating in Jonglei and Western Bahr-el-Gazal? Which means the\nstatement is not in place because we have forces in Pibor and Upper Nile,\u201d the\nNAS spokes-person explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suba further\nclaimed that the Revitalized Peace Agreement was the root cause of continued\nviolence in South Sudan and that it did not address the problems of South\nSudan.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnless the\npeople of South Sudan come out with a document that will unify all the\npolitical needs, then the country will not be in peace, but for now we are not\npart of that peace, we have the commitment and that is the reason why we came\nwith the national force to bring total peace together to the people of South\nSudan, not this peace that people have over talked about. South Sudan needs\npeace that means freedom, democracy, development and justice, but not peace\nthat the country is personalized and all the time gunshot,\u201d Suba claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suba denied\nthat NAS was responsible for the destabilization of the areas such as; Yei, Mukaya,\nLobonok, Morobo, the citizens of which he said are still moving in their\nthousands to refugee camps around the world, claiming that this movement was\ncaused by the government and the opposition forces, and not the NAS. He alleged\nthat the violence and human rights abuses in these areas were committed by the\ngovernment and opposition forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAS went on\nto accuse the government of having not carried out any development in South\nSudan delivered since it came to power in 2005, despite the oil money. Suba\nsaid as long as Salva Kiir\u2019s government was still in power, NAS would not be\npart of the peace agreement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\ncontacted by No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Kong, the\nSpokesperson of South Sudan People\u2019s Defense Forces (SSPDF) said, \u201chow do we\ncause the displacement of Civilians in even some areas that do not have our\npresence. It is the NAS. NAS has been fighting the SPLA-IO, they have been\nfighting us, and you could remember even the other day in Gorom area, near the\ngold Mining area, they came and attacked us in the process where they killed\ntwo members of the same family,\u201d Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are\nthe ones who are abducting people who are going about their own businesses in\nthe country side, they are ambushing vehicles in all the roads. So if civilians\nwere being displaced, if they are being killed, then we are not the ones. Where\nNAS does not have presence, we do not have problems with civilians, they are\nthe ones who normally hide themselves in populated areas, so what NAS\nSpokesperson told you is a big lie,\u201d Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai reiterated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile,\nthe Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek Ateny told No.1 Citizen Daily\nNewspaper on 10th<\/sup> August, in a phone interview, \u201cwell, I was\nthinking that Thomas Cirilo was part of the hold out groups which are actually\npart of the peace negotiation in Rome and they have arrived to a certain level\nwith our negotiating team. There was no condition that Thomas Cirilo plays on\nthe issue of President Kiir being the President. If he is waiting for President\nKiir not to be the President, then he is not looking for peace, because\nPresident is the President of the Republic in this transition period until the\ntime when people go for elections. He will go for elections, if elected then he\nwill continue as President,\u201d Ateny explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThomas\nCirilo cannot give conditions that if President Kiir is still the leader he\nwill not negotiate, then he is looking for war,\u201d Ateny added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kiden Stela Mandela The National Salvation Front NAS, one of the hold out groups who are not signatory to the Revitalized Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), has stated that it will not join the peace process. NAS was responding to a statement made by the[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3537,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions\/3537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}