The "patience of peace" has arrived in the UN Headquarters. This is how Marco Impagliazzo referred to the commitment of the Community of Sant'Egidio to achieve an end to the conflicts at the Security Council meeting on the South Sudan crisis yesterday, 20 June.
Indeed, after a number of meetings on the theme of peace and conflict resolution, with Secretary General Guterres, Deputy Li Junhua, and others, the President of Sant'Egidio presented to the Security Council the experience and proposals named "Rome Initiative": the inclusive platform developed by the Community to address the complex South Sudan conflict.
"For more than 50 years, Sant'Egidio has been a peculiar international actor, a Community close to vulnerable people, dedicated to peace, inter-religious dialogue, humanitarian aid and also able to conduct international mediations and facilitation in different parts of the world, from the peace agreement in Mozambique signed in Rome in 1992, to Burundi, from Guatemala to Kosovo and Mindanao. Indeed, we believe that 'war is the mother of all poverty'. President Marco Impagliazzo began - "Sant'Egidio has been following the situation in South Sudan with care and concern since the 1990s, well before its independence. Several times Dr. John Garang, the founding father of that country, visited our headquarters in Rome to seek avenues for dialogue, in the midst of the struggle for independence. Our initiative, called the Rome Initiative, was born in the aftermath of the signing of the Revitalised Agreement in 2018, in the complicated phase of the creation of the Government of National Unity. Several political and military entities had rejected that agreement and it was necessary to retrieve them," he continued, recalling that the Initiative "led to mutual recognition between the government and the non-signatory opposition and created a negotiating framework for political engagement.(...)
The process is more inclusive now and moving further in that direction. The Rome Initiative represents a political dialogue complementary to, and in harmony with international institutions. Sant'Egidio", he concluded, "is committed to continuing on this path with the intention of creating favourable ground for eradicating violence". He went on to mention "the important contribution offered by civil society representatives and leaders of the country's Christian and different religious denominations. This participation will only increase in the coming phases and is a decisive impetus in calling government and opposition leaders to their responsibility towards the South Sudanese people and their suffering".
Address to the UN Security Council (full version)
Marco Impagliazzo from New York (IT)
(source ANSA)
