Let me come in.
First of all, the Canadian government has helped, like what Honourable Odwar has just said. I would just add to that you have actually helped us a lot. The role that you can play is through your embassy in Juba. That embassy does not take into account that the other people who are not part of the government are not reached. I want the Canadian government to have a type of ambassador, an ambassador who can be seated where the peace talks are so that you have more views from the other people who are non-government, who are not within the government. With that it will also help you to have a clear vision of all these activities that we are talking about in regard to reforms so that you have different views, including the views of Dr. Riek, where you can meet him personally and he talks to you more.
I want the committee to also do a special visit. The UNMISS camps, the support that you may have been giving the UN in terms of humanitarian assistance, is good but if the committee has the opportunity to travel to Juba, they should go visit the situation, and see what the situation is really like. Then you see the witnesses who are there. If you do not travel to Bentiu or the Upper Nile...but people in Juba, you can access them and see them.
I would also encourage you to do that because the situation in Juba is very pathetic. For one year now the Nuer community children have not gone to school. But if Canada can really stretch its hands to also open ... an opportunity so that at least those who are really suffering.... Even children who are there, some of them have lost their parents. It's unfortunate that some of those children now don't have a future. Many of them are just ending up on the streets of Juba and some of them are cleaning shoes for people because they don't have parents and they don't have food to eat. It's certainly an opportunity again to be open so that at least they are given another opportunity to see life in a different way. They are all traumatized. They have lost their parents. Nobody is taking care of them. Many of those children, you see them in Juba town, in UNMISS camps in the thousands. If there's any settlement opportunity, that would be good. It's not only in Juba, you can also visit the Ethiopian border where the refugees are. You can also visit Uganda where the refugees are so that you have an extensive view of how the war has affected the South Sudanese families, individuals, or other communities.
I want to also suggest that maybe you can support women's participation because you see, for us women, we feel like when war is happening we are not told, and that's why thousands of them died in the massacre because they were not informed. If they knew there would be something like that, some of them would have run away, you see, or protected themselves in a different way, so that at least they would still be alive.
With that we come to the issue of federalism. Canada is one example that is having a government system and that is an area you can actually help us understand, how the federal system works, because that is the call of our people. We want to use it so that people don't concentrate, don't come and immigrate in one area, and a situation like what has happened in Juba repeats itself. But your system will be in South Sudan. You can go, live in your village and yet have access to resources and then you have a livelihood.
These are some of the things that I can recommend, and that you have a visit also to the chairman of the SPLM-in-Opposition to hear more and get more insight. But the most important thing is that you have a special envoy who will sit where the peace talks are taking place, so that you have an extensive view, views that are talked about by different negotiators.
Thank you.