End South Sudan crisis now, UN chief tells IGAD

Speaking out. UN Secretary General Antinio Guterres (right) during an interview with Nationmedia journalists at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Kampala on Thursday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN WANDERA.

What you need to know:

  • António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, was born on 30 April 1949. He is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations.
  • Before joining UNHCR, Mr Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. As head of the UNHCR refugee agency from 2005 to 2015, he led the agency through some of the world’s worst refugee crises, including those in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

KAMPALA: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that time was up for the warring factions in the South Sudan crisis to resolve the conflict or else regional countries propping the peace process move in to forge a political solution.
Mr Guterres, in an interview with Saturday Monitor at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Kampala ahead of the UN’s refugee solidarity summit, described the suffering of the people as “too much” and said it was high time the crisis was ended, though he ruled out direct involvement of the UN.
“We fully support the conclusions of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), and our team in South Sudan is doing everything to support mediations by the African Union but it is time for the leaders of South Sudan to put an end to this conflict.”

“It is unacceptable to see people suffering in such a terrible way,” Mr Guterres said.
Igad is a seven-member regional bloc comprising countries in the Great Lakes and Nile valley region, including the Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
At the Igad extra-ordinary summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa early this month, the heads of State directed army chiefs of Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya to convene urgently to fast-track an earlier proposed plan of deploying a neutral force to the country.

Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Kenya are so far the only known troop-contributing countries to the neutral Regional Protection Force (RPF) meant for deployment to the restive South Sudan to reinforce the UN Peace Keeping Mission, whose current mandate is limited.
The fresh fighting, according to UN sources, has displaced nearly 2.3 million people, with 1.6 million people displaced internally. At least 300 people have been killed in the fighting.
Mr Guterres, who was last here in 2005 to flag off South Sudanese refugees after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the nearly three decades of war with the Sudan, described what he saw as an “impression of shock, deep emotions, and being sorry for the South Sudanese people.”

Excerpts from the interview

You’ve just returned from visiting the refugee camps. Uganda is hosting nearly 1.8 million refugees and close to 950,000 of those are from South Sudan. What is your impression?
I think it is a double impression. First of all, I am shocked by the tragedy of the South Sudanese people. I was exactly in the same area 12 years ago when I started my functions as commissioner for refugees (UNHCR). Three days after I started work, I came to Uganda to celebrate the World Refugee Day with the South Sudanese refugees and they were very happy because the Comprehensive Peace Agreement had just been established, and they were hoping to return home. And indeed many South Sudanese went back home with support from UNHCR and I accompanied one of these convoys to one of the villages in South Sudan and there was joy of families restarting, reuniting. But now, you can imagine the shock of these same population, 12 years afterwards, having fled the country six years after independence and again going through tremendous suffering.

The first impression is of shock, deep emotions, being sorry for the South Sudanese people.
But then, [I have to express] an enormous gratitude and admiration to the government and people of Uganda because in the world, so many doors are closed, borders are closed but Uganda opened its borders [to refugees]. Ugandans opened their houses to the refugees, the government provided security and at the same time the communities share the land, and schools. This is extremely beautiful and a lesson that others should learn, especially in the developed world.
These communities that have been receptive to the [refugee] communities have also had to suffer when new populations come in, exerting strain on social services.
What will the UN do more?

Well, that is why I am here and we have the summit. We are together with the President and government of Uganda; strongly appealing to the international community to assume its share of responsibility and to be able to support Uganda not only in humanitarian aid to the refugees but in structural development aid to the communities. It’s the duty of the international community to show the same solidarity that the Ugandan people have showed to the refugees to match massive investments in Uganda, and we will do everything possible to mobilise the international community to understand that this is not a matter of generosity but it’s a duty of the whole world.
You were here before when a peace deal was brokered and it has now been violated. Several other agreements have been signed but all have also been violated. So when will peace return to South Sudan and what is the UN doing?

The UN is working closely with the African Union (AU) and with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad)—there was an Igad summit a few weeks ago. We fully support the conclusions of Igad, and our team in South Sudan is doing everything to support mediations by the African Union but it is time for the leaders of South Sudan to understand that it’s time to put an end to this conflict. I sincerely believe that the people of South Sudan don’t deserve the to be treated that way: an extra-ordinary people that have suffered so much, nothing justifies that this war goes on. It is unacceptable to see people suffering in such a terrible way.
Of the refugees, 59 per cent are young people who have aspirations and watching the UN and are asking; what are you doing to restore the hopes they had before they fled?

The first priority of young people is education, and I could see that Uganda has allowed these young people to go to the same schools as the Ugandan children. Of course, those schools are overcrowded, so we need to invest in those schools to expand them, improve on quality for both South Sudanese and Ugandans, and this is one of the most important reasons for the summit to take place. We are putting education as a priority.
Igad was meeting the other day, they have a plan but it needs financing, and they will meet again over the same, so essentially it is always moving in circles? Beyond the rhetoric of UN working with the African Union, do you think it should really be now to bring this conflict to end?

Well, I must say that the AU mediators and our own special representatives are working hard. I know Uganda has played a very central role trying to bring together those that are divided. So, a lot of people are working but it’s time for the South Sudanese leaders to assume their responsibilities.
There are two warring factions that are known; don’t you think its pertinent to pluck them out to allow some new sort of germination in the country?

[Laughs] Well the UN does not, at least the UN Secretary General, does not have power to make it stop. I cannot go there and stop them, and as you know, the international community has limited capacity and has shown in preventing conflicts or to solve them. We have managed situations and have had instances when the UN Security Council is divided, even on South Sudan. I hope now the initiative we promote to have Igad, AU, and UN on the same page will help to create conditions for finally bringing this [crisis] to end. It is a must this [crisis] should stop because those people are suffering too much.

What is the guarantee that the South Sudan peace keeping missions will not become like the DR Congo peace keeping missions?
There is no guarantee. By definition, peace keeping means to keep the peace but the problem is there is no peace to keep, which means the mission is in a situation where it cannot meet its mandate and its capacity. The peace keepers are not allowed to fight in order to impose peace, and that is why in many circumstances, we have been advocating the Security Council to decide on peace enforcement missions; like in Somalia, where there is a peace enforcing mission with the authorisation of the Security Council. Unfortunately, peace keeping missions don’t have that mandate nor the resources; that is why we need a political solution.

The UN Security Council has since last year been talking about sanctions, and Uganda, which is playing a central role, is against some of the sanctions like the arms embargo. How do you then see a balance being struck between the two?
There was no agreement in the Security Council about sanctions, so that problem no longer exists because some countries in the region were against some of those sanctions but in any case it did not happen.
How would you describe Uganda’s role in South Sudan’s peace building, given that in 2013, when the war first broke out, the international community, including the UN, was first against the idea but, Uganda moved in nevertheless; allegedly to evacuate its citizens and also stop a likely genocide, and now it turns out Uganda has been exonerated?

[Laughs] Well, at the time I was not Secretary General of the UN and was not following it but I know there were these different opinions. I think the most important thing is not to look at the past, usually politicians never agree about the past but agree about the future, so it is time for everyone to agree about the future. Now that Igad is united, and Uganda is playing a central role in there, I think it’s now time, to get everybody to support the same direction.
Against that backdrop, Uganda among other African countries have been pushing for a permanent seat on the Security Council so they can raise such matters and make the international community see what they don’t see. What do you make of that argument?

I have always supported the need for reform of the Security Council and this is obvious. When the Council was formed, very few African countries existed. Many were still under colonial regimes, so Africa had no permanent member. That is an imbalance in relation to other parts of the world: I hope the reformation will be possible and I fully understand the frustrations of Africa, and they fully expressed them to me at the last AU summit that I attended in Addis Ababa.
According to UNHCR, the agency you previously led, currently 65 million people are displaced. What do you read between the lines?
I read not between the lines, I read along that line; that this is unacceptable, politically and morally and that the leaders of South Sudan have the moral and legal obligation to independently end the differences they might have and to stop this war.

The UPDF, and US forces have just lowered their flags to pull out of the Central African Republic but anarchy is brewing yet again. Uganda has expressed interest in joining the UN Mission in CAR, MINUSCA, once its mandate has been revised. How far with the plans?
In relation to CAR on the one side, there was recently a ceasefire agreement between government and opposition groups, and I hope it will be sustainable but with the new violence, we have agreed to strengthen the capacity of the UN Mission with rapid force to strike when peace is put into question, and I hope we can improve capacity of that mission and I will fight for it.

Profile

Birth. António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, was born on 30 April 1949. He is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015.
Education. He was educated at the Camões Lyceum (now Camões Secondary School) where he graduated in 1965, winning the National Lyceums Award (Prémio Nacional dos Liceus) as the best student in the country. He studied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon. He graduated in 1971 and started an academic career as Assistant Professor teaching Systems Theory and elecommunications Signals, before leaving academic life to start a political career.

Career. Before joining UNHCR, Mr Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. As head of the UNHCR refugee agency from 2005 to 2015, he led the agency through some of the world’s worst refugee crises, including those in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.