South Sudan: 1,000 police graduate to provide security in referendum
By Bonifacio Taban Kuich and Manyang Mayom
January 7, 2011 (BENTUI & RUMBEK) – Southern Sudan has seen the graduation of 1,000 police and security officers, 600 in Lakes state and 400 in Unity state, ahead of the region’s independence referendum on January 9.
Speaking at a ceremony in the Governor of Lakes State, Chol Tong Mayay, witnessed the graduation of 600 security personnel in Rumbek at the state Police Headquarters, assuring residents that security would be provided during the referendum process.
The security forces, who have received three months of training, will add to the existing police forces and will be deployed at the 214 referendum centers in Lakes State.
Governor Mayay said he was pleased that the forces had been trained before the referendum, as they would be able to protect the referendum and ensure it is “fair, free and transparent.”
On Friday Sudan Tribune reported that Lakes state security services have captured , Isaac Akot Duboa, senior member of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) in Wulu county, Lakes state, for buying voter referendum registration cards.
Over 900 referendum cards were seized in his house in Wulu County in the evening of 30 december by security services.
Apparently referring to this incident Governor Chol urged citizens to provide to the police “right information to apprehend, in a peaceful manner, those who are trying to sabotage the referendum.”
Chol said that “we are very excited today to have this force in front of us – and this is to let you know, the international community and stakeholders that Lakes state is ready to conduct free, fair and transparent referendum – it will be protected by these men, they will protect people and referendum from those people who like to sabotage referendum – this is not only police forces we have, this is additional police from what we already have”.
Lakes state commissioner of police, Saed Chawul Lom, said that the graduation was temporary so that they could be deployed during the referendum to guard polling centers.
Lakes state had faced selling of referendum cards in Wulu county of Lakes state at southern part of the state capital and lack of water facilities plus far distance is only threat.
Unity State
South Sudan Police Services also graduated 400 police in Unity state who also received a three-month training to assist in referendum time.
The Unity state chief commissioner of police, Elijah Madut Yoang, told Sudan Tribune that their role in Southern Sudan’s referendum is to ensure law and order is respected.
Yoang added, “Our role is to make sure that the South Sudanese are freely deciding the self determination of the South through free and fair voting exercise.”
Gatkoi Gai Luak, a representative of the police, said that his training had not been easy or colourful like the graduation ceremony.
An estimated three thousand civilians gathered to witness the event at Bentiu Stadium on Thursday
The function attended by the United Nation Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) police services who facilitated as part of a capacity building capacity agreed upon as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
The CPA, signed in 2005, ended two decades of civil war between the Khartoum government and the former rebel group the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM).
The state governor Taban Deng Gai, cautioned the newly graduated police to deliver services to all citizens and take the law into their own hands.
Gai clearly said that the referendum was the dream of the SPLM. The south is widely expected to secede from the north.
(ST)