Unity Deputy Governor says asses security situation ahead of independence day celebrations

By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

June 27, 2011 (BENTIU) – The deputy governor of Unity state, William Dawut Riak said that the security situation in his state is prior to the independence celebrations on 9 July while briefing the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and international non-governmental organisations (INGO) on Monday.

Riak, who chaired the meeting, told INGO’s precisely that his government is willing to open talks with renegade Gatluak Gai’s forces to hold ceasefire for the rebellion in Koch county.

Riak welcomed the steps taken by UNMIS to be the third party in the peaceful settlement with Gatluak Gai’s forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). He said, “we need to celebrate the independence day with our fellow brothers, who took up arms against the ruling South government over the 2010 general election grievances.

Gai was a supporter of the former Unity state gubernatorial candidate, Angelina Teny who went into last year’s April election as an independent against SPLM official nominee, the incumbent Governor Taban Deng Gai. Teny, the wife of Southern Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar, contested the position as an indpendent after failing to secure approval of her candidacy by the SPLM’s 27 member political bureau – the highest political structure in southern Sudan’s ruling party.

Teny promised to appoint Gai as a county commissioner in the event that she won the election. However, the National Elections Commission announced results in favour of the SPLM nominee, prompting Gai, among others, to contest the outcome. Subsequently in May 2010, Gai, became a leader of an armed rebel group active in the western part of Mayom county.

There have been allegations that Gai’s forces are operating as a proxy force for the Khartoum government.

Riak said the “joy on July 9” would not be for South Sudanese alone but for Africans at large and other international communities who have participated in South Sudan’s overwhelming vote in favour of secession from North Sudan. In 2005 North and South Sudan ended 22 years of civil war with the signing of a peace agreement. A stipulation of the agreement was the opportunity for the South Sudanese to vote in a plebiscite in January 2011. They voted in favour and the secession will take place on 9 June 2011.

Riak said all the counties of South Sudan had been given their budgets for the independence day celebrations.

(ST)