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S. Mayardit: Address to Third Rally of Hope 2020
Written by H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit, President, South Sudan
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Address to Third Rally of Hope 2020, November 22, 2020
Distinguished heads of state, religious leaders, and the leadership of the Universal Peace Federation International with its partner organizations who organized this rally.
I greet you in the name of my country, the Republic of South Sudan, and its people.
Let me begin by thanking UPF International for this opportunity to speak at this important event, the Rally of Hope. My participation here is an honor to the people of South Sudan, who wholeheartedly supported my work for peace both internally and in our sisterly country, Sudan.
As rightly stated in the invitation letter for this event, the new Rally of Hope allows us to collectively think about challenges facing our desire to be a human family. And equally, it is an opportunity to explore ways of achieving greater solidarity among all peoples.
For us in South Sudan, despite the challenges facing us, we view our commitment to achieving total peace in our country and in our region as our modest contribution to global stability. We hope these modest steps we have taken will slowly but surely contribute to global stability and in the process, these modest steps will foster greater solidarity among all peoples.
Working for peace is not an easy task; nor is peace itself something that can be achieved overnight. Peace, to those who desire it, means making painful decisions. It means having endurance to deal with many challenges that prevent its quick realization. And it means having tolerance to hear the other side.
In my work for peace, I have always been guided by my people's expectations. The weight of their expectations has often compelled me to make very painful concessions in order to break many logjams in our peace negotiations.
I believe that as leaders, we should all strive to do the right thing for the sake of peace because peace is a key ingredient in the solution to the problems facing humanity. Without peace, we cannot mitigate climate change. We cannot fight the COVID-19 pandemic or even think of addressing global poverty.
The environment of perpetual conflict is the prime enemy of human progress. We all know that war drains both material and human resources and diverts attention away from present national priorities; and it prevents countries from achieving their potential.
Let us all rededicate our efforts toward achieving a peaceful world by uniting against wars.
Thank you all for listening to my brief remarks, and may God bless you all.
To go back to the report on the Third Rally of Hope, click here.