South Sudan rampage, man reported shot

(Adds SPLA officer on negotiations and possible resolution)

Dec 15, 2006 (JUBA) — Hundreds of south Sudanese soldiers went on a rampage in the southern capital Juba on Friday, firing in the air in protest at the government’s failure to pay them, witnesses said.

Hundreds of soldiers carrying weapons roamed the streets for hours, concentrating on the area around government buildings. Shops closed and the streets were largely deserted.

But in the early afternoon an officer in the former rebel army, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), said negotiations were under way and were making progress.”

“They are in a meeting and they are resolving it. The firing and protests have stopped. They are negotiating,” Lieutenant Colonel Kuai Deng Kuai told Reuters.

The colonel, who witnessed many of the events around the ministries, said he knew of only one injury — someone run over after he fell off a speeding pickup truck.

“They (the soldiers) were shooting in the air. If there were any casualties it was by accident,” he added.

But a Kenyan woman caught up in the chaos said some soldiers were firing at each other and one group dragged a man from a vehicle and shot him in the street.

“The soldiers were shooting between themselves. It was terrible. They stopped a driver. They shot the tyres, got him out of the car and shot him,” said the woman, a private-sector manager who identified herself only as Karen.

She told Reuters she saw the shooting from close range while lying on the ground before she was able to escape to safety. She could not see if the man survived the shooting.

The soldiers, from the SPLA, had marched through the town towards the legislative assembly building, firing as they went.

Some soldiers say they have not been paid properly for years, including during the time they were fighting government troops in the countryside.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), political wing of the SPLA, made peace with the central government last year after 21 years of civil war in the south.

Colonel Kuai said the soldiers who took part in the protest were from units which contain elements from both the SPLA and the Sudanese national army commanded from Khartoum. The joint units are one of the provisions of the peace agreement.

The local authorities set up roadblocks on some of the main streets and U.N. security told U.N. staff to stay off most roads other than the road from the airport to a U.N. barracks.

(Reuters)