Juba (July 26^th, 2011)

Dr. Francis Deng, who is the UN special envoy to UN Secretary General on Genocide prevention acknowledged the warm welcome by the caretaker Minister and Under Secretary of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. He also thanked the Minister for organizing the conference aimed at sensitizing the citizens of South Sudan on governance and multiparty democracy.

He said that he had held a number of conferences in the countries he visited where he gave lectures on the theme of identity in a nation. He said he would also like to talk on the same line of identity crisis in a nation.

He said he produced several book on democracy and national identity, and he is also going to introduce a book on the customary law among the South Sudanese. However, he lamented the slow pace of progress introducing the book, and said it was particularly very difficult to send copies to be shared with the chief justice citing though he instructed the secretary to collect the copies, the secretary never showed up on time.

He renounced how wrongly many countries he visited perceived his visit. He said several countries he visited were reluctant to talk to him about genocide related issues. He made it clear that his mission is not to visit countries where genocide has occurred. He further went on to underscore that neither does he wait until a genocide take place in a country. He stressed that his mandate is to prevent any genocide from occurring. He also mentioned the need for seminars to introduce people to our mandate on the notion of genocide.

Dr. Deng, said he had tried to engage people to talk about genocide issues but many people fear to talk about it openly fearing that it is sensitive. He said genocide can be defined in term of identity, ethnicity and not because of indifference among people in term of marginalization. He said with all these in mind how do we promote identity so people can enjoy their citizenship rights?

H went on saying that the state has the primary responsibility to people and can call upon international community for support on matter beyond their capacity. He hinted that the best way to promote national identity is to define it well.

He said throughout all the conferences he organized people fear to talk about genocide until when he defined it is when they declare their willingness to offer support.

He said he was very happy to hear similar conferences will be conducted in South Sudan because South Sudan has just emerged from history of identity crisis. He said a saying that “a child who has been abused tends to be abused more “.

Dr. Deng applauded the effort by the president, and the Vice President of the Republic of South, Dr. Riek Machar during his visit to New York. He said the Vice President made it clear that South Sudan is determined to promote good governance, democracy and to abide by the UN policies, so the question is how to realize those aspirations, he said. The UN envoy feels South Sudan is capable of providing a model and to see South Sudan become a leader in fulfilling that vision.

The Minister for Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, hon. Micheal Makuei said he was glad to welcome to the UN envoy to South Sudan. Hon. Makuei said that the government is trying very hard to ensure South Sudan become a nation and beat the timeline agreed in the 2005 comprehensive agreement. He also acknowledge the support of the UN special envoy in promoting human rights, leadership to help educate the people to build a better society and a new nation that may take lead He reiterated that the government of the Republic South Sudan has been a better government to Khartoum government because it respected the rules of war. He citing that during the war the SPLA use to release prisoners of war unlike their former enemy the government of Khartoum. In addition, the minister made it clear that South Sudan is committed to CPA and respect the general principles of humanity, good governance, and principles of human rights. He said that they could not implement them all because South Sudan was not a nation then until now that the South is implementing all the principles of good governance and human rights. “Rome was not built in one day, It’s a process which take long”, he said. He stressed that the process may take long but the government is determined to ensure the people get their rights.

This minister point out that prime objective of his ministry is sensitization of people and to promote democracy. He decried that the word democracy is a term being misplaced by people but there are agreed definitions. He furthermore said, his ministry is sensitizing member of National South Sudan Legislative Assembly, MPs at the state level to educate them so they know what is required of them as representative of people. He said he ready to the task of educating the people.

Dr. Deng then said that he is going to discuss how to build our cultural values and institutions. He mentioned the difficulty and the trouble when talking about democracy due to the way the western nations applied literally. He said one of the main factors is election, and how it triggers because of the notion that the winner take. He said falling back to the indigenous African traditional way where decisions were made in a manner that persuades every one. According to African traditional way of leadership, power was diffused at all levels, and chiefs don’t interfere at all levels. to build an effective society, he said.