South Sudan, 2013

It is a great honour

for me to address the Assembly for the first time as

Vice-President of the Republic of South Sudan.

First, I would like to express the heartfelt

condolences of the Government and the people of South

Sudan to the people and the Government of the Republic

of Kenya, in particular the families of those affected

by the brutal and inhuman act of terror in the Kenyan

capital, Nairobi. We condemn all acts of terrorism and

pledge our full cooperation and support to all efforts

geared towards ridding the region and indeed the globe

of terrorism.

I convey sincere my gratitude, as well as that

of President Kiir Mayardit and the people of South

Sudan, to the United Nations, in particular the Security

Council, the countries of the Intergovernmental

Authority on Development, the Troika, and all people

of goodwill for diplomatically helping us to bring to

an end to the conflict that had devastated our country

for decades. We are grateful in particular to the

international community for closely monitoring the

difficult implementation of the peace accord. Given the

complexity of the issues involved, the implementation

of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has been

relatively successful, although the protocols of the two

states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, the case of

the contested area of Abyei, and the demarcation of the

borders between South Sudan and the Sudan continue

to impede the full implementation of the peace accord.

Our country is well endowed with abundant

natural resources. Our relations with the Sudan

have recently involved unexpected tensions, with

intermittent suspensions of oil flow through the Sudan.

Inside the South itself, old quarrels dating back to

time immemorial have re-emerged among certain

communities over cattle-grazing and water points.

This became complicated during the last war as guns

of various calibre fell into the hands of unauthorized

civilians. We are working hard as a Government to

entrench peace in all corners of South Sudan. We have

established programmes to rehabilitate and integrate

former rebel groups into our armed forces and society

at large.

We have to build a country literally from scratch,

with non-existent physical and social infrastructure.

This has given us the worst human development

indicators in the world, including high maternal and

infant mortality rates and high illiteracy rates among a

population of over 8 million.

While we recognize that, as humans and as a

Government, we must have made errors of judgment as

we sought to fix a war-devastated country, successful

steps have also been taken, and we appeal for the

goodwill shown to us in those times of difficulty to

continue. We are confronted with the test of adherence

to human rights as a consequence of malicious action

by external hands, rather than of our own making. We

commend any objective criticism and we call on the

experts on South Sudan also to appreciate the bigger

picture of how well the country is run in our nine other

states besides Jonglei.

We are presently running a Government with

acceptable standards of competence. A decentralized

system of governance is the outcome of a conscious

decision taken by South Sudan’s political leadership,

as enshrined in the 2011 transitional Constitution, to

build a broad-based democracy in the post-conflict

setting. We set up the 10 states with popularly elected

governors and democratic legislatures as a nucleus of

good governance. In 2010, President Kiir Mayardit was

democratically and overwhelmingly elected. Our noble

struggle was to actualize the ideals and values of true

democracy, so cherished by our people.

According to our Constitution, the next elections

will be held in 2015. Indeed, on 18 September, our

President publicly confirmed the date. The governing

party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)

will hold another general convention in March 2014 to

freely elect its structures in preparation for the 2015

national general elections.

Let me turn to the issue of women. Women have

suffered discrimination since 1956, with a literacy rate

hardly reaching 18 per cent. The SPLM as a ruling party

is now raising women’s political participation from the

25 per cent in the current Constitution to a minimum

of 35 per cent in the proposed permanent constitution.

In recent years, the National Legislative Assembly,

of which I was twice elected Speaker and where I served

a total of eight years, enacted a good number of laws,

including the Petroleum Revenue Management Act and

the Investment Act, among many others, setting out clear

rules on how we can efficiently and prudently spend

our oil revenues. With the support of our development

partners in the region and internationally, we have now

embarked on the development of our infrastructure.

Numerous infrastructural projects are under way.

In response to the oil shutdown last year, the

Government implemented austerity measures. We

reduced Government spending by 40 per cent, and at

the moment we have considerably increased non-oil

revenue collection. We take seriously our responsibility

to ensure that public funds are properly utilized and

that our spending is rigorously monitored. We are thus

determined to uncompromisingly fight practices of

maladministration, including corruption.

We deeply regret the loss of the lives of the Indian

peacekeepers, the Russian helicopter crew and the

Kenyan and South Sudanese relief workers in Pibor

county. We express our condolences to the families and

the Governments of those who lost their lives. We wish

to assure the international community that such tragic

incidents will not be repeated.

Jonglei state, the most populous, with inaccessible

terrain, has been of particular concern to us as a

Government as well as to the international community.

There is no doubt about that. It has serious security and

infrastructural impediments. We regret the security

impediments in Jonglei and assure the international

community of our Government’s determination to

transform our army, the Sudan People’s Liberation

Army (SPLA), into a professional national army

that respects human rights and the rule of law and is

committed to the protection of civilians.

The President has declared a general amnesty for

the rebel groups, and already two large groups, one

under General Bapin and the second under General

Johnson Oluny, have responded positively. The

President has also ordered the mandatory disarmament

of the civilian population and has taken legal steps to

punish the perpetrators of human rights violations in

Jonglei, including an SPLA Brigade Commander, who

is now under arrest together with 13 soldiers who have

been sentenced to prison terms that range from three to

five years. To date 84 cases of human rights abuses have

been tried in the courts of law. We are determined to

see that the violations committed by some indisciplined

SPLA elements do not go unpunished.

Recently the Government formed a peace and

reconciliation committee headed by top religious

leaders to promote dialogue with all groups, including

rebel groups in Pibor county.

The Government has allowed the United Nations

Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the Office for

the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

and other humanitarian bodies unhindered access to

all parts of the country, including, of course, Jonglei

state. Regarding the situation in Pibor county, which

has been of particular concern to all of us, we have

determined, thanks to UNMISS and OCHA, the

number of people who are currently registered for food

distribution in various camps for internally displaced

persons and villages. If that number is compared with

the pre-conflict population of Pibor county, we could

now be relatively relieved at the fact that most of those

who had been unaccounted for are in fact alive and

receiving much-needed humanitarian assistance from

United Nations agencies and other organizations.

Out of the total population of approximately

140,000 in Pibor, for instance, nearly 100,000 people

have been identified in the Pibor bush alone, along with

another 10,000 in Juba City and 26,000 registered as

refugees in neighbouring countries. We appeal from

this rostrum for expeditious relief assistance in various

forms.

Another urgent security demand is the training of

a police force capable of eliminating the high rate of

crime we are experiencing in Pibor county and, indeed,

the entire country. UNMISS, to which we express our

profound appreciation, has helped transform hundreds

of former combatants into a police force conscious of

the rule of law. UNMISS is doing a very commendable

job under its able leadership. The rate of crime caused

by the proliferation of small arms has been alarming.

While our police force has managed to apprehend many

criminals, others are still at large. The Government

is committed to erasing this menace. We refute any

allegation to the effect that such violations are deliberate

and systematic orchestrations.

Our relationship with the Sudan has been a mixture

of cooperation and squabbles. Fundamentally, both

sides acknowledge that there is no alternative to lasting

peace other than harmony and cooperation, given our

shared history. That is why President Kiir Mayardit,

remarkably, visited Khartoum early this month and held

amicable discussions with his counterpart, President

Omer Hassan Al-Bashir of the Sudan. They agreed to

enhance cooperation on all fronts, including allowing

the unhindered flow of oil from South Sudan through

the Sudan.

We call on the parties at war in the Sudan to find

a durable political solution to the conflict, a situation

to which the CPA has provided a workable remedy. We

urge the international community to play a positive,

stepped-up role in narrowing the gap between both

parties. The civil war currently taking place in the Nuba

mountains and Blue Nile regions of the Sudan, as well

as in Darfur, has created an influx of refugees to South

Sudan, and that is a source of concern for us. We appeal

for humanitarian access and supplies for those refugees.

Given our unique knowledge, acquaintance and position

as partners to Khartoum and former comrades-in-arms

in the fighting forces in those two regions, in addition

to our interest in realizing peace along our northern

border, the Government of South Sudan can play a

constructive mediation role if required.

On Abyei, we will continue to cooperate with the

Republic of the Sudan to implement the agreement on

the final status of Abyei through a referendum, set

for October 2013 by the African Union High-Level

Implementation Panel. The African Union Peace and

Security Council and the United Nations Security

Council accepted the proposal as “representing a fair,

equitable and workable solution”. The international

community must therefore ensure that this proposal is

implemented expeditiously.

Our new Government in Juba, energetic and with

new faces, is leaner, so as to reduce expenditure, but

broader in terms of inclusiveness of other political parties

and civil society, even those without party affiliation.

The reshuffle has been highly supported and applauded

countrywide, with a recent opinion poll carried out by

two organizations — CRN and ST — showing 84.7 per

cent for the new team and 92 per cent for the choice of

the new Vice-President.

While many, including our friends, had doubted

our ability to peacefully manage as simple a political

exercise as a cabinet reshuffle, the domestic backing

is revealing. Our immediate agenda for the new phase,

which we are calling phase two, is to improve health

care, education, roads, electricity supply and the

quality of life. We are determined to uproot impunity

and corruption, phenomena which plague post-conflict

States, wherever they may be, and which can derail all

of our efforts and determination to succeed. Based on

its resolve to combat corruption and set a new standard,

our Government has erased 16,000 “ghost names”

it found on the police payroll. We are carrying out a

similar exercise in the military and other organized

forces.

In conclusion, I wish to repeat that we remain

steadfast in our vision of a country at peace with itself

and with its neighbours — a country which is growing

in security, the rule of law and human rights and

progressing towards justice and prosperity. I offer my

sincere thanks to our many partners and friends for their

continued support. We look towards the future confident

of what we, a people emerging from marginalization

and suffering civil strife, can accomplish together.

The Organization has to redouble its efforts to

nurture and reinforce its new Member, South Sudan,

both economically and in its determination to put an

end to human rights violations. It is important for the

United Nations to monitor and promote the complete

implementation of the cooperation agreements reached

between South Sudan and Sudan to cement harmonious

and peaceful coexistence.