Interview with Hilde Johnson, UN Special Representative for South Sudan
Improving South Sudan's state- and nation-building capacities remains a huge
task, says UN Special Representative Hilde Johnson. In today's interview,
she outlines the work being done by the UN mission in the world's newest
state.
4 April 2013
_____
"All the energy, virtually, in South Sudan, has been sucked into the South
Sudan-Sudan relationship, and very limited energy resources have been
focused on core statebuilding and nation-building priorities," said Hilde
Johnson, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN
Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS).
Though Ms. Johnson said, "We have seen progress, despite all the tensions,
all the troubles, and all the energy going elsewhere."
Ms. Johnson had
<
http://www.ipinst.org/events/speakers/details/436-hilde.html> just spoken
at the International Peace Institute about the work of UNMISS in South
Sudan, and she explained why she focused her talk on protection of
civilians. "The assumption of many South Sudanese was that the mission was
here to protect the territories or the sovereignty of South Sudan; we're
supposed to protect them against any aggression across the border," she
said. "However, that is not the mandate of the mission."
She said the challenge has been overcoming that perception and the
disappointment people feel when they learn that UNMISS is not a
border-monitoring mission or buffer-zone mission between Sudan and South
Sudan. "We're actually here to protect civilians within the country's
borders," she said.
Ms. Johnson said that despite conflict in some hotspot areas, some
engagements have led to the prevention of conflict.
"The challenge, of course, is that these successes are invisible, because
when nothing happens, people don't know that the engagement has succeeded.
And so, that's maybe the paradox in peacekeeping-that if your political work
succeeds, then you are not really being recognized for the efforts that had
been made."
The interview was conducted by
<
http://www.ipinst.org/about/people/2-detail.html> Warren Hoge, Senior
Adviser at the International Peace Institute.
Listen to interview (or
<
http://www.theglobalobservatory.org/images/audio/Johnson-final.mp3>
download mp3):
Transcript:
Warren Hoge: Our guest today in the Global Observatory is Hilde F. Johnson,
Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Head of the UN
Mission in the Republic of South Sudan, known as UNMISS. South Sudan is the
newest of the 193 Member States of the UN, having been created only 18
months ago. Hilde Johnson is uniquely qualified to take on this job, since
she was deeply involved in the negotiations behind the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement of 2005 that ended a 22-year-old war that had cost 2 million
lives, and ultimately led six years later to the founding of South Sudan.
Hilde, you had described the many problems South Sudan has encountered in
its early months, as South Sudan getting a divorce from Sudan before the
divorce papers were ready. What has happened to make this birth of a nation
so difficult and why has it happened?
Hilde Johnson: Well clearly, South Sudan is a little above one and a half
years old, so still a toddler by every measure, and even more challenging,
when we are in a situation where a number of the issues that should've been
sorted out before independence, were delayed. And hence, we've seen to some
extent an escalation of tension between Sudan and South Sudan in the absence
resolving those issues. We saw the disputes on the oil with the shut down,
we've seen hostilities on the border in March-April last year. And all the
energy, virtually, in South Sudan has been sucked into the South Sudan-Sudan
relationship, and very limited energy and resources have been focused on
core state-building and nation-building priorities. And that of course has a
significant impact on the country and on its ability to move forward, so in
a way, it's been hostage to this situation.
WH: Well let me ask you about those things. Things like a national
constitutional process, elections, establishment of political parties,
police reform, DDR; these are the normal stages of building a national
identity in developing a state. Is South Sudan able to pursue these, at a
time, when as you put it, so much energy has been sucked out by the tensions
with Sudan?
HJ: Well interestingly, in those areas specifically, we have seen progress,
despite all the tensions, all the trouble, and all the energy going
elsewhere. So, if I can take the three issues you mentioned. On the
political side, the democratic foundations, all the new and independent
country have been established through legislation, multiparty political
parties act, electoral act, the institutions related to that, all of it
through extensive consultations with the different political parties. We've
seen the national constitutional review process be established a little
delayed, but now being extended to December 2014. We have also seen progress
in the area of transformation and reforms in the police sector, where the
commitment has been strong, changes have happened in the leadership, we've
seen registration of the police, it's been a significant movement in the
right direction. And finally, in DDR, while the first year saw a lot of
delays in that area, things have picked up lately, with the establishment of
the DDR Council headed by the Vice President and with key security
ministries now developing a nationally owned DDR program, the way they
wanted. So in these areas, they have managed to make progress, despite all
these tensions and problems in their Sudan-South Sudan relationship.
WH: When we asked you to come speak here in IPI about the work of UNMISS in
South Sudan, you said you wanted to focus on protection of civilians. Why is
that the priority, and since the main responsibility for protection of
civilians rest with the government, what can the UN do?
HJ: The reason why I wanted to talk about this is that the protection of
civilians is seen as the core mandate of the mission. If you look at the
Security Council Resolution 1996, but also the subsequent one, 2057, it is
really highlighted, and it is highlighted by Security Council Members as
maybe the biggest and most significant priorities for the mission. What I
wanted to do was to present to the audience here at IPI what the challenges
are for the mission in implementing its mandate in this area, but also
provide some of the successes we've had in doing so, so both the challenges
as well as some of the achievements. We're seeing in the context of South
Sudan, significant challenges in implementation, primarily for reasons
related to logistics and numbers. So just by example, 65% of the country is
basically cut off during the eight-month long rainy season, and the only way
at this point in time can access these areas is through helicopter. We are
asking for riverine capacity to be provided, meaning boats, but we also need
to see our military helicopters be completed with six, we have three at this
point in time. And we have also limited numbers of infantry troops, and I
gave examples today, of how limited that is in the face of some of the
challenges we are encountering in South Sudan, where we can see thousands of
attackers, actually, threatening the lives of civilians. So in all these
aspects, we are faced with challenges, but I think I also managed to
communicate that we have really achieved a lot. We have managed to protect
civilians against the threat of 8000, as the SPLA also was engaging, and
we've also had thousands of civilians in our camps, multiple times, being
protected from insurgence and from attackers.
WH: I believe your mandate is the first, with an explicit demand for
creating an early warning system. How are you doing that?
HJ: So we have created an early warning system, through first, establishing
a strategy on early warning. Secondly, establishing a mechanism which
implies that all the relevant units of the mission, but also the UN country
team are engaged in both getting information but also assessing it,
analyzing it, and using it through a regular weekly assessment. That weekly
assessment gets to us in mission leadership, and it proposes actionable
interventions that we need to take to address the early warning challenges.
So, this is a system that we have put in place, but we also need to make
sure we strengthen the government's own early warning systems, both at the
local level as well as the state and national level, and we're already
working on that. At the moment, the most functional one is a state-level
one, but we also need to see it work and be up and going at the local level,
at the county level, as well as nationally.
WH: I want to ask you about the image of the UN in South Sudan, whether it
is trusted, is it suspect? And in particular, something you mentioned, which
is its mandate to protect civilians is, I think you said, sometimes
misconstrued as protecting the sovereignty of Sudan, not protecting the
people that live within.
HJ: Well the challenges we've had in the first 16 months, 18 months, of the
mission's life, is that when the hostilities took off between Sudan and
South Sudan, the assumption of many South Sudanese was that the mission was
here to protect the territories or the sovereignty of South Sudan. We were
supposed to protect them against any aggression across the border. However,
that is not the mandate of the mission. The mandate of the mission is to
protect civilians, wherever they might be, within capabilities. And so, the
challenge of course has been that this perception of the mission leads to
some disappointment when people discover that, actually, we're not here as a
border monitoring mission or as a buffer zone mission between Sudan and
South Sudan. We're actually here to protect civilians within the country's
borders.
And so, I think we've overcome some of the most significant misperceptions,
but whenever there is an aerial bombardment incident or an incident of
incursions that is alleged, we are very often questioned, as why you're not
there to protect us from this. And so, this is a recurrent challenge.
Now, that the Joint Border Monitoring and Verification Mission was being
established from the agreement that happened on March 8 in Addis Ababa, we
are expecting those misunderstandings to diminish, and we will then be able
to say this is the task of the Joint Border of Monitoring and Verification
Mission, it is not the task of UNMISS. And so, hopefully, through that
verification process and through the withdrawal from the borders of both
countries, we'll see those misperceptions being overcome.
WH: You had talked about a key moment being moved from prevention to
protection. Is that already happening in some of the less conflicted parts
of South Sudan, and do you see that happening one day in places like Jonglei
State?
HJ: Well the key, of course, is if we can just do prevention and succeed,
protection would not be necessary. And so, that's of course our goal, if we
are in a position through political engagement, through community
engagement, if we're able to prevent conflicts or tensions from exploding,
from ending in violence, we will then not need to use our protective forces,
our physical protection, that's our main goal.
And now are we succeeding in Jonglei? I think we've succeeded for a while,
following the major attack December-January 2011-12, we saw a rather
successful peace process that we supported throughout January, February, all
the way up to May, when the peace agreement was sign and where we are going
to move to the implementation phase. And so, in that phase, things really
went well, and things moved in the right direction. Jonglei was stabilized,
people started cultivating, people started seeing abducted children and
women being returned, things are really moving in the right direction.
However, we've now seen a lapsed back in two situations. One, a major attack
that happened on the 8th of February by the Murle against the Lau Nuer.
We've also seen now a buildup of David Yau Yau's insurgency and militia
elements that seem to now be able to create instability, in particular, in
people, in one very important area of Jonglei. So now, we are again in a
situation where the risk to the stability and the state is significant.
Nevertheless, we have other examples where our engagement in hotspot areas
have really led to prevention of conflict, and the challenge, of course, is
that these successes are invisible, because when nothing happens, people
don't know that the engagement has succeeded. And so, that's maybe the
paradox in peacekeeping, that if your political work succeeds, then you are
not really being recognized for the efforts that had been made. But we can
live with that as long as we're not seeing conflict erupts, we have been
able to implement our mandate.
WH: I don't know if any SRSG, at least in my experience, who is as fully
versed in the country to which she is going as you are. You were a player in
the negotiations leading up to the Comprehensive Peace Accord in 2005 that
ultimately led to the creation of South Sudan. And though you are a
certified Norwegian, having been a member of your parliament, and a member
of your government, you also are African. And I just wanted to ask you,
finally, just reflect on what it is like to be back on the continent where
you were born and raised.
HJ: Well it's rewarding to be back, and I really feel strongly and
passionately about assisting the newest nation in the world, trying to help
stabilize the nation in their first few years, after independence. It's of
course a significant challenge and the challenge certainly isn't less than I
expected. Still it's a rewarding experience for me and I hope I'll be able
to make a difference to this new nation we all want to succeed.
WH: Hilde Johnson, Thank you very much for speaking today, to the Global
Observatory.
HJ: You're welcome.
_____
For additional reading on this topic please see:
<
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?lng=en&id=1
54316> Sudan and South Sudan: Current Issues for Congress and US Policy
<
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?lng=en&id=1
52877> South Sudan's Emergency State
<
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?lng=en&id=1
46174> Livelihoods, Basic Services and Social Protection in South Sudan
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Thu Apr 04 2013 - 21:00:18 EDT
