South Sudan will have its own army even if Sudan remains united – SPLM official
October 14, 2010 (JUBA) – A senior official in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which governs southern Sudan, says that the region would retain its own army in the event of Sudan remaining united after the January 2011 referendum.
Peter Adwok Nyaba, minister of higher education and scientific research in the national government in Khartoum and member of the SPLM Liberation Council, on Thursday said the region would continue to have its own army even if the south votes for unity in a referendum due to take place in January.
His remarks prompted some officials to dispute his interpretation of the security protocol of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), that ended the north-south civil war.
A government official who did not want to be named said that there would be only one army for Sudan if the referendum results to unity of the country.
He explained the CPA stipulates that in the event of unity, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) would be merged with the Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), which are a mixture of the former southern rebels and the Sudanese army.
The JIU’s, the official said, would be the nucleus of a future national army, should the south vote for unity.
In an interview with the SPLA head of communications, Brig. Gen. Malaak Ayuen Ajok, on South Sudan TV minister Nyaba commended the CPA, which he said was different from previous peace agreements signed between north and south in the past because it retained the SPLA as a separate army.
“We would have our own army, our foreign minister, which is now the regional cooperation […] even in unity,” he assured the viewers in his TV interview.
In the interview Nyaba was asked to talk about the SPLA’s split of 1991, in which the current Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan and deputy chairman of the SPLM, Riek Machar attempted to seize control of the SPLA .
Lam Akol, was also party to the Nasir Declaration, which announced the coup attempt, who is currently the leader of another breakaway group the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC).
Nyaba, who participated in the Nasir Declaration of 1991, along with Lam Akol, condemned the timing of the split.
He did not, however, detract from its causes but said in hindsight that he thought that the Sudanese government was behind it.
The split, Nyaba said, was necessary to properly reorganize the SPLM/A, and establish its political wing from military wing.
Separating the two would enable the political branch the SPLM to carry out mobilization activities, allowing the military wing to focus on combat, he said.
The South Sudan TV interview with Nyaba, came less than an hour after another exclusive live interview with Lam Akol, during which the former Sudanese foreign minister responded to phone calls from viewers.
Akol said the 1991 split was the first to champion self-determination and democratization of the movement.
He said self-determination through referendum was enshrined in the 1998’s Constitution of Sudan as an alienable right of the people of South Sudan which would have been exercised in a referendum [in 2001], about nine years ago.
Both Akol and Nyaba are from the Shilluk ethnic group in Upper Nile state but are politically rivals in the Shilluk Kingdom.
The two interviews, which reflected on events of the civil war and political events, comes as the leadership of southern Sudan looks create a consensus among the political parties and armed groups in the region ahead of January’s referendum.
(ST)