Misseriya and Dinka conference calls for joint police unit

November 12, 2008 (AWEIL) — Representatives of Dinka Malual and Misseriya Merram communities have called for a special security body to be set up with members of both bordering tribes in it to promote better security between the troubled neighbors.

The two communities have fought on-off for years and during the long north-south conflict were backed by different sides. But when armed Misseriya groups and southern soldiers began fighting in a series of bloody battles in the last dry season analysts said the clashes could threaten the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Both sides have pointed to the upper echelons of government with blaming fingers: Dinka leaders say the Misseriya groups are armed by Khartoum and the Misseriya say the SPLA have moved too far north of the 1956 border and have looted their cows.

But with the approaching rainless months the pressure is on to find a peaceable way for the Misseriya to bring their cattle into South Sudan’s water-fed pastures as they have for generations.

“They have to come. If you try to stop them, they will fight,” a member of Southern Kordofan’s CPA assessment and evaluation commission Safi-Eddin Galal said.

As well as a joint security force, members of the two communities also recommended setting up a kind of chiefs’ council to deal with wrong doings by either side.

Others called for disarmament from both communities but elders acknowledged this would take much confidence-building by both the national government and the South’s leaders.

Also included in recommendations made by groups of both communities were vet services for cattle in order to prevent disease epidemics.

The peace conference will finish Thursday.

(ST)