South Sudan peace monitors urge immediate formation of state legislatures

JUBA – The interim chairperson of South Sudan’s peace monitoring body, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC), Charles Tai Gittuai, is urging the parties to the 2018 revitalized pace agreement to immediately form the state parliament.

The parties are supposed to reconstitute the state legislatures to include new appointees following the signing of the 2018 revitalized peace deal.

The reconstituted state parliament should have been in place to support the implementation of revitalized peace deals and enact legislation that enables and assists the transitional processes, including reforms.

Speaking at the RJMEC regular monthly meeting in Juba on Thursday, Gen. Gittuai called on the government to expedite the reconstitution of the state legislatures in order to enable them to perform their sub-national duties.

“A properly functioning government requires the full cooperation of the three branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, at both the national and sub-national levels. The state legislatures which are critical to complete the state level governance structures are not yet in place,” Gittuai said at Thursday’s meeting in Juba.

Gittuai reiterated his call for reconstitution of the National Audit Chamber and the Anti-Corruption Commission enshrined in the 2018 peace deal.

The RJMEC Chief expressed concern on slow implementation of Transitional Security Arrangements, especially the unification and redeployment of forces which he said, is the backbone of the agreement.

“There has been little progress on the transitional security arrangement. Earlier this month, the presidency directed that plans and preparations for graduation of unified forces should be complete within a few weeks,” he said.

He also appealed to the leadership of the Parties to urgently resolve the issue of the ratio of the unified forces and the unified command structure of the Necessary Unified Forces.

“Critical issues include the unified command structure, force ratio between parties, disproportion numbers of senior ranks funding for sustaining the personnel in cantonment sites and training centers as well as funding the DDR commission,” he said.