Demobbed veterans demonstrate in South Sudan

March 1, 2007 (JUBA, Sudan) — About 300 demobilised Sudanese soldiers marched on the U.N. headquarters in the southern capital Juba on Thursday demanding pension money for the years they served in the central government’s army.

Under a peace agreement signed in 2005, the Sudanese army is in the process of withdrawing from the south, giving way to a southern army based on the forces of a former rebel movement.

But Sudanese army units deployed in the south also included many southerners who have no wish to move north. Sudan has a black African south, which is mainly Christian and animist, and a mainly Muslim, Arabic-speaking north.

The demonstrators said some of them had served 30 years but stopped receiving army pensions seven months ago.

Juergen Bergmann, a peacekeeper with the United Nations mission in Sudan, said the peace agreement contained no provisions on payments to demobilised soldiers on either side. “That is left up to either party to decide,” he said.

One of the veterans, Jacob Laku, said many central government soldiers had gone north but he would not go.

“My father is here, (and) my brother, why should I go?” he asked. The money from the army had been patchy for years and dried up last July, he added.

The demonstration broke up peacefully after half an hour.

(Reuters)