Calm returns to South Sudan’s Juba after SPLA demonstration
Dec 15, 2006 (JUBA) — Calm has returned to the streets of Juba after violent demonstration by hundreds of Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldiers carrying weapons in protest of the non-payment of their salaries.
According to the Sudan Radio Service, SPLA soldiers from the Joint Integrated Unites (JIU) in Juba have returned to their barracks after being assured their complaints about unpaid salaries will be addressed soon.
The battalion, based on the eastern bank of the River Nile that runs through the town, defied warnings to stop and crossed the river, marching through the main part of town demanding unpaid salaries for last September to November. They opened fire into the air to mark their angry.
The Joint Integrated Units – composed from the Sudan Armed Forces and the SPLA– are paid by the Sudanese Presidency.
Soldiers agreed to stand down and return to their barracks after negotiations with a Government of Southern Sudan team — reportedly led by Madame Rebecca Nyandeng –ended with a promise to follow up with the Government of National Unity in Khartoum, which is responsible for paying all JIU soldiers.
In the morning, SPLA spokesperson Major-General Kuol Deng Kuol had termed the soldiers’ protest as “illegal” and sought to reassure people that the movement of soldiers was related to the salary protest and was not fighting.
“Let me assure all our people that there is no fighting in Juba. What happened is that there is a battalion of JIU based in Sherkat; this unit did not receive the salary for the month of November. In the morning they differed with their local command and they dispatched one unit to town. This company was peacefully moving along the street but they fired up the guns. This was an expression of their discontent. They did not shoot at anybody because I was following them from Juba Bridge up to where they went and assemble at the mausoleum of Dr. Garang de Mabior.” General Kuol Deng said.
However, according to the radio at least five people were killed and scores of civilians were injured in the commotion and road accidents were also reported in many parts of the town.
After the statement from General Kuol was aired on radio stations in Juba, the protesting soldiers also stormed some stations and closed them down, including the United Nations Miraya FM.
The group that came for demonstration was very peaceful and they came to Garang’s mausoleum, but the situation seems to have been aggravated by those who seem to have wanted a hand in it, the SRS said.
(ST)