Militias threaten south Sudan peace deal
dec 1, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Militias operating outside the legal armed forces of north and south Sudan pose a major threat to a peace deal that ended 21 years of civil war in Africa’s biggest country.
Their assessment followed clashes between one such militia and southern government forces in which around 100 people died in the city of Malakal, some 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of Khartoum.
“It was a mine left over by the peace agreement which ended up by exploding,” said the independent daily Al-Sudani Friday, referring to the peace agreement reached in 2005 between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Under the accord, the old civil war militias were supposed to choose to join either the official forces of the northern government or the autonomous southern administration.
Yasser Said Arman, a senior official in the southern government, warning about the presence of unaffiliated militias in the south, told reporters: “If this question is not resolved it threatens to lead to the collapse of security arrangements” between southerners and northerners.
According to the official, the peace deal and the provisional constitution adopted after it was signed left the militias with no choice other than “to integrate totally in the forces of the north or south.”
The signing resulted in a national unity government with the SPLM retaining control of south Sudan but integrating some joint units in Khartoum.
Officials in Khartoum said the fighting earlier in the week, which lasted for three days and also wounded many combatants and civilians, was caused by a militia which had not been totally integrated into the regular northern forces.
The sources said the fighting had been provoked by elements of a militia called the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), a southern movement backed by Khartoum, led by Gabriel Tanginya.
Tanginya has the rank of general in the northern army but has not integrated his forces into the regular force.
Khartoum Monitor journalist Alfred Taban said: “When his former boss Paulino Matip joined the southern forces early this year, General Tanginya did not follow him.
“If the peace accord had been correctly applied, Gabriel Tanginya and all his men should have been totally integrated into the Sudanese army … but he was, on the contrary, authorised to keep his men and weapons.”
Taban said the warlord had political ambitions and wanted to become the head of Fangak locality where he had recently ousted the southern leader Maluit Wic.
According to the Khartoum Monitor on Thursday, the violence erupted when militiamen loyal to Tanginya killed an SPLM policeman.
After being hunted down by SPLM forces, the gunmen sought refuge in an army base, the newspaper said, adding that wider fighting broke out after the regular army refused to hand over Tanginya’s men.
There are no accurate figures on the number of rogue militias or their strength but several incidents in Khartoum and the surrounding region — like the recent murder of five policemen — have been blamed on armed southern elements.
(AFP)