Machar says fighting war too ‘expensive’ than achieving peace

JUBA – South Sudan’s First Vice President and leader of the main armed Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Dr. Riek Machar Teny has called enactment of legislation that would enable reunification of the country’s rival forces to avoid return to war which he said is too expensive than achieving peace.

The powerful opposition leader made the remarks while addressing mourners who gathered to pay their last tribute to the fallen former Speaker of the Council of States Joseph Chan Bol at the Freedom Hall in Juba on Wednesday. Bol passed away in the Sudanese capital Khartoum last week.

“I want us to have faith in peace. It is very expensive to fight a war but it is cheaper for peace because you lose nobody in peace. You don’t lose lives you talk if there are differences and you resolve them by talking,” Machar said.

“There has been a cry for the implementation of the security arrangement but some of the pre-requisite for implementing security arrangement is connected with this national legislature,” Machar added.

He urged lawmakers to enact laws that will enable a thorough implementation of the security arrangements provided for in the revitalized peace agreement so that the country has a unified and professional security sector.

“If you are going to have unified forces military, police, national security, prison, wildlife, civil defence, and states police, to have these organs, you need the legislature, you need laws for them. But when we received the bills for these security organs, we passed them and they are awaiting probably ….. the national legislature now,” he said.

“We would ask the national legislature to quickly go through them so that we have a legal document for the formation of our security organs. Some of you might have thought that once these forces are organized, this is the end of it. No. You need these laws or bills to be passed into laws so that the forces are formed,” he stressed.