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By Julius N. Uma
February 22, 2011 (JUBA) - Leaders of national and civil society groups have issued a petition, demanding for the immediate removal of Angelo Beda, the delegate selected to represent them on the technical committee reviewing South Sudan’s interim constitution.
In a strongly-worded petition seen by Sudan Tribune, which was addressed to South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, the group provides a list of three nominees to the committee for “our legitimate representation.”
- Lorna Merekaje (L) and Isaac Kenyi (R), civil society nominees to the technical committee addressing the media in Juba, Oct 21, 2010 (ST)
“The agreed upon person, Angelo Beda is not a civil society actor and has never been part of the civil society in South Sudan,” the 19 February petition, also addressed to South Sudan political parties leadership, partly reads. It adds, “The agreement on the nomination and approval of the above mentioned person, was made in the absence of civil society in the meeting itself.”
Last week, the south-ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and leaders from the other political parties held a two-day forum on the transition in Juba, the South Sudan capital.
The two-day event reportedly approved the inclusion and participation of political parties, civil society and faith-based groups, further approving the inclusion of their members into the established technical committee tasked with reviewing the 2005 law.
Beda’s appointment, together with 11 other leaders from various South Sudan opposition parties, was contained in a 17 February presidential decree. According to the civil society petition, however, its members were not consulted in the nomination process, contrary to the resolutions that emerged from the two-day dialogue.
“There has not been, at any time, consultation with the organised sector of civil society, on our representation in the technical committee, which we have continuously called for,” further reads the petition signed by 12 various groups.
Meanwhile, civil society activists nominated Isaac Kenyi from the Justice and Peace Commission, Lorna Merekaje from Sudan Domestic Election Monitoring and Observation Programme (SuDEMOP) and David de Dau from Agency for Independent Media (AIM) as nominated members to be included on the committee.
(ST)
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