By Taban Henry
The Revitalized Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission is calling for inclusion of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) in the unification process of forces.
This was revealed in a meeting that brought together all the generals from various political parties convened by the chairperson for National Transitional Committee NTC with an aim of briefing about the progress of the implementation of the peace agreement particularly the unification of forces and setting of the time table for the graduation of the Unified Forces.
Speaking during the meeting, Gen. Charles Tai Gituai said “there is need for total support to be rendered to the STRS board and DDR which we wanted to see the progress”.
He said as people think about the unification of the forces, there is need to think critically since those who will not be legible for the unification should have a chance to be accommodated into the DDR.
“As we move around and organize, the critics of the implementation of the peace agreement DDR should be part of it so as to know how to deal with those soldiers who will be able to be legible to join the forces and the officers who will not be able to move forward,” Gituai said.
He appreciated those officers who will surrender their positions describing it as sacrifices as we remember those who made supreme sacrifices to this country even creating space to another General is much less sacrifices.
“We also wanted to say as we move forward, lets develop that spirit which will make our military to move forward, I think it will be a disaster if we move backward, for us working in the transitional military, the legacy for us is the unification of forces even if they retire after the agreement you will go down in history as that General who served the country,” he added.
Gen. Gituai stated that they are not only focusing on the implementation of chapter two as all other chapters are interlinked but the move forward for the implementation of the Chapter two is a good gesture that opens positive doors for other chapters.
He called on the authorities to support other mechanisms particularly the NCAC which has embarked on their work; they need to be supported by the NTC.
Meanwhile the Chairperson for the National Transitional Committee and the Presidential Advisor on Security Tut Gatluak Manime said that they fund the parties in the peace agreement to go and sit with their leaders to summit their list for the unification of the command structure to stop the conflict in order to implement “what we have already agreed upon and after the graduation we prepare for the second batch to be taken for training because they have stayed in the training grounds for a long time”.
He hailed the Sudanese government for their support and their presence in resolution of conflict in the Republic of South Sudan till then up to now.
“We should complete the unification of forces; you understood few days ago our civilians were living in fear but after the signing of the papers between the President and the First Vice President in a meeting, they are now changed and I have hope that peace is coming and for peace to come we must complete the unification of forces quickly,” he said.
Tut stated that they are left with two things to be completed, the budget of for the DDR adding that without them there is no benefit and therefore that there is need for organizing the DDR before embarking on the command structure.