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July 31, 2011 ( JUBA) — South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit has ordered the army to hunt criminals committing crimes against citizens of the newly established state. He further stressed that these behaviors are subsequently giving a bad image of the regular forces.
- South Sudan President Salva Kiir (AP)
"During the war, the SPLA soldier was not known for being a rapist and not a looter. These things are now happening inside here in Juba. If you are SPLA, from where did you get this thing," asked the emotionally charged President Kiir in a speech delivered at the commemoration of South Sudan’s fallen heroes and heroines on Saturday.
Kiir also condemned rape of women by SPLA soldiers and asked "Who taught you this practice? I don’t believe it is you and if it is not you, you must get these criminals and arrest them because they are spoiling your names," he said.
Kiir, who was speaking three weeks after independence at the John Garang memorial ground, further denounced all kinds of criminals in the country and stressed particularly on a new kind of thieves who use motorcycles in Juba streets.
"There are people with motorbike. These people who ride motorbike known as “bodaboda” go around the streets and when they see a woman with her small hand bag, they take it and dash away with it to where there are no people. Sometimes they take women and drive with them to the bush where they mishandle and leave them to walk all the way back to where they took them," he added.
The president, who remarked that criminals must attend to what he was saying because there is nowhere they can hide, said those involved in these activities must be looked for.
“These people, we will have to find out whether they are really South Sudanese and if they are not South Sudanese we will have to send them back to where they came from in chains”, he said.
Kiir said the army has been infiltrated by criminals who he said had entered the army through different ways and have begun to commit atrocities that are giving new nation a bad name and image worldwide.
KHARTOUM WILL NOT HOST CRIMINALS
Kiir warned that Southerners will no longer be allowed to go to the North Sudan, where they are considered foreigners, and speak about civil war or rebellions.
"In the past when we want to take action, the accused would run to Khartoum and begin to say there are people fighting people in the south. I want to tell you that this time there will be no Khartoum to which people will run again. And if someone runs to Khartoum, first all he will go there as a foreigner.
“He will no longer go there as a Sudanese citizen and must therefore remember that he is causing a problem for the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan which are two separate and independent countries. We are no longer part of that Sudan”, said President Kiir.
The South Sudanese president called on regular forces and other security organs to embrace discipline as one of the core values of professionalism that needs to be upheld. Maintaining respect, he said, helped the former rebel movement to secede during the war.
“It makes no sense when you go to the street and beat ordinary citizen, you enter the shop and take something from the shop, and you go to the house of a citizen and take something from the house including taking even a telephone of the innocent and poor citizen. This does not give the real meaning of the liberator, so I want you to take responsibility of security of our people more seriously”, he said.
He revealed that the government would create new national security which would work together with the ministry of defense and ministry of interior to collaboratively play a leading role in maintaining law and order as well as protecting lives and properties of the citizens.
“The work of the national army is to defense sovereignty and help other organized groups ensure law and order is maintained. This role of protecting people would be not be limited only to south Sudanese citizens per se, even foreigners who comes to south Sudan falls under protection and must be protected”, he said
He also announced that he had ordered the arrest of some senior military officers reported to have indulged in incidents in which some of the citizens were reports to have been mishandled in Juba by security forces.
"There are serious and humiliating incidents which occur. There are now some of the senior officers under arrest. I have ordered them to be arrested and they will remain under arrest until they are investigated thoroughly. That you have gun in your hand does not give you the privilege to tutor another citizen without any crime.
CORRUPTION AND TRIBALISM
Kiir in his Saturday speech also stressed on hot issues in the South Sudan: tribalism and corruption.
"My new government is going to empower South Sudan’s Anti-Corruption Commission so that they can carry out their mandate diligently. Whoever is found to have taken what does not belong to him or her will be asked to account to the public," said Kiir.
He added, "The government will also strengthen the audit chamber so that it functions more effectively in efforts to completely eliminate corruption from our societies."
The president called for one national identity among all South Sudan tribes regardless of their ethnic group and geographical location and urged to embrace a spirit of nationalism.
“We are all south Sudanese and if we are all south Sudanese, this does not mean we do not have tribes. If you are from Fartit, or you are a Luo, these are tribes in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, or you are a Mandari, or you are a Pagulu in Central Equatoria, or you are a Didinga or Acholi in Eastern Equatoria State, or you are a Brun in Upper Nile or a Murle in Jonglei State or whether you are a Nuer or a Dinka anywhere, we are all south Sudanese," he said amid musical applauds.
He explained that the alternative to finish all these issue is that “we cultivate the spirit of nationalism”.
(ST)
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