Kiir should not be blamed for delay of security arrangements – Mabior Garang

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit should not be blamed for the delay in the implementation of the security arrangements provided for in the revitalized peace agreement signed by him and a number of opposition groups in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2018 to end a five-year-old civil war, according to ex-deputy interior minister Mabior Garang de Mabior.

Mabior who traveled to South Sudan’s capital Juba upon the invitation of President Salva Kiir Mayardit made the remarks at Juba International Airport before he took a plane back to Kenyan capital Nairobi where he has been living in exile since his resignation from the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) in the middle of last year.

The son of SPLM founder Dr. John Garang De Mabior said he discussed, during his meeting with President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement and focused on the security arrangements which he said has been delayed due to lack of opposition honesty and that President Kiir should not be blamed for the delay.

“We discussed the issue of the security arrangements, how it’s very important for finding peace, how some of the oppositions have not been honest, its implementation and we don’t blame him (President Kiir) so much for not implementing the arrangement,” Mabior said, without explaining much.

“So we have tried now to come with a security arrangement proposal that can be agreeable for everybody, that can be best for the security of our country so that our civil population can find the real peace not politicians trying to use the agreement for their own gains” Mabior added.

For his part, Manasse Zindo, a board member of the National Conversation South Sudan, a community-based organization, said that they offered a proposal on the implementation of the security arrangements and how the citizens can forge a common understanding out of often troubled past.

“We shared ideas with the President on how the sustainability of the current relative peace in the country is dependent on the inclusivity of civil populations in the cattle camps, villages, PoCs and the refugees’ camps to generate a societal agreement about what peace means and what it entails,” he said.