By Emelda Siama John Lopula
Some members of parliament at the transitional national legislative assembly are urging the government to first disarm retired soldiers before turning attention to the civil population.
The MPs believe that the retired military generals are the ones giving and selling the guns to the civilians in the country.
The lawmakers made their assertion during Tuesday’s parliamentary sitting.
One legislator, Hon. Aldo Ajou Deng Akwei alleged that the retired soldiers who fought wars were the ones having the guns.
“The retired soldiers are the ones with guns since during war, they are the ones giving and selling the guns.” Ajuk said.
The legislator insisted that not civilians, but the army be dealt with in disarmament process, as a priority since they possess firearms.
“If the intension is to disarm civilians, which civilians? According to me, we should deal first with soldiers, these people are the ones who captured the guns, they are the ones keeping the guns,” he argued.
Hon. Ajou wondered the task of the security, holding them responsible to detect individuals in possession of firearms and ammunitions to be disarmed.
“I don’t know what the security is doing, the securities are the ones to discover who is keeping the guns, this is a fact that was being pushed to civilians all the time,” he tasked.
He emphasized that security forces in the country are entrusted with the role and responsibility of protecting the lives of the people and their property.
However, another MP, Hon. Loboin Anna Lino Wuor(in picture above) wondered why the first batch of the unified forces were made to be graduated with sticks.
“Our forces (unified forces) were graduated with sticks and that the next batch should come in with their own guns while yet, I stressed that all our civilians have guns” she legislator lamented.
Hon. Wuor, in an open utterance stated that among some tribes, each individual civilian possesses 3 to 5 guns, including heavy and powerful weapons.
“I am speaking loudly that those in charge of security and the army should remove those guns from civilians and give them to the army,” she suggested.