The Hon.Dr.Riek Machar
If there is one issue that hangs over the prospects for the Sudan to achieve the Economic prosperity that it seeks, it is the Peace Issue - specifically, whether or not the Sudan will achieve lasting peace after more than 40 years of uninterrupted civil war.
An individual who is centeral to that question is Dr. Riek Macar, who was named President of the coordinating Council of the Southern Sudan states following the Peace Agreement reached in April 1997 between the Government of the Sudan and six of seven main opposition groups in the country.
Yes. Peace is the main agenda at present, and the main axis of our political drive. And since we signed a political charter with the Sudan Government, the steps towards peace have been very positive. The political charter contains 14 principles from which we based the peace Agreement.
War and the conflict have affected the Sudan for the last 42 years. But we believe this Peace Agreement has addressed the issues that brought about the root causes of the war and conflicts in the Sudan, The Peace Agreement has three sets of solutions.
One is for the whole of the Sudan; the other two are for the Southern part if the country. The first sets forth that the Sudan is made a federal state, with 26 individual states, and those 26 states having been given adequate powers. By this, the intention is to achieve a democratic system so the people can govern themselves. We also intend to adquately share our country's wealth. And wiht in this set of solutions, we have also addessed issues such as the separation of state and religion, a thorny issue. Sometimes people prefer to call it a secular system, but we opted for calling it the "relationship between the state and religion".
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