South Sudan police cadets are training ahead of the upcoming referendum on independence.
In southern Sudan preparations are underway for the referendum scheduled for January 9 that will decide whether that part of the country secedes from the north. Part of the preparations for the vote, and for a possible future state, include training a regional police force.
They sing songs of appreciation for coming through a long civil war to this moment when they will decide their future, and they praise their president, Salva Kiir, as they sing in their native Dinka.
Some 6,500 police cadets are training at this facility, named for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) leader who brought them through a two-decade civil war only to die in a helicopter crash weeks after signing a peace agreement with the north.
The cadets live in very basic conditions, 100 to a rudimentary dormitory, no latrines or running water. They bathe meters away in the White Nile and cook the food provided to them on open fires. Twice a week they build their physical strength, running an arduous 40 kilometers over dirt roads to the regional capital Juba.
Fred Yiga is the U.N. Development Program’s chief technical advisor. He says south Sudan is looking at training a total of 30,000 men and women for their police force. A little more than half that number should be in place before the January referendum. Their schooling is conducted by south Sudan training teams and police from the U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Yiga says UNDP is key in the academy’s development. “We have supported this idea right from the start. And as you will see, we are building classroom structures; we are providing fresh water for drinking because the Nile water is not very healthy for drinking. So UNDP is engaged in sanitary provisions, is engaged in building classrooms, dormitories. We are key in the development,” he said.
He says in a part of the world where education has often been difficult to obtain, a large proportion of their recruits are literate. “So most of these guys have high school certificates, they have degrees. And we are very proud of them because they can read and write; they can speak to victims; they can take statements. So it is a big effort,” saisd Yiga.
They are being taught to perform crowd control, secure polling stations and other skills they will need for the planned January 9 referendum that is expected to see south Sudan vote to secede from the north. They are also ready to handle public disturbances, keep the peace and deal with crime.
A third of the cadets here are women.
Mochi Joseph, 29, is a married mother of four, who completed her police training two years ago and is already working as an officer. Right now she is supporting her family because her husband is a student. “I love my job because now I become a police lady. I know how to work, I know how to protect myself, I know how to protect my city, in other words, everything – even my kids,” she said.
Ayuan Nyok, 27, expresses the same motivation for being a police officer as many of his fellow cadets. “I wanted to be a policeman because I wanted to help our nation. So I wanted to come as a new generation of policeman working in our nation,” he said.
This batch of cadets will graduate in a few weeks.
Reflecting the increasingly strained relations between the partners in the Harare unity government, Mr. Mugabe termed “absolutely foolish and stupid” the broadsides issued in recent days by by Prime Minister Tsvangirai
President Robert Mugabe on Friday responded to recent sharp criticism by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai over the appointments to top posts he has made without consulting his governing partners, chiding Mr. Tsvangirai for broaching unity government issues with the European Union and others and envisioning new elections in February.
Addressing a meeting of the youth league of his ZANU-PF preparatory to a December conference, the president said the national unity government launched in February 2009 has irretrievably broken down so that the only solution to the crisis is a new round of elections in 2011. The unity government was formed following 2008 elections that ushered in a period of intense and deadly political violence, resulting in political deadlock resolved by power sharing.
Reflecting the increasingly strained relations between the partners in the Harare unity government, Mr. Mugabe termed “absolutely foolish and stupid” the broadsides issued in recent days by by Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his formation of the Movement for Democratic Change, long in opposition but now theoretically on a level with ZANU-PF.
President Mugabe said that differences must be resolved internally.
Mr. Tsvangirai has declared “null and void” many of the appointments made by Mr. Mugabe over the past two years since the signature of a Global Political Agreement for power sharing, telling the EU and United Nations that Harare’s ambassadors to Brussels and New York were unconstitutionally appointed in disregard of GPA terms.
The European Union expressed concern at the lack of a consensus in Harare on ambassadorial appointments.
But the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it will not question the diplomatic credentials of Zimbabwe’s current ambassador to the organization, Chitsaka Chipaziwa.
Responding to the latest crisis, South African President Jacob Zuma in his role as mediator for the Southern African Development Community sent his facilitation team to Harare this week.
On Friday South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told reporters that Pretoria remains committed to helping the Zimbabwean unity partners resolve their latest falling-out.
But in Harare the war of words continued between ZANU-PF and the Tsvangirai MDC formation (Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara heads a smaller MDC formation that broke away in 2005).
ZANU-PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo told VOA Studio 7 reporter Blessing Zulu that the prime minister should not complain to the West and reiterated Mr. Mugabe’s call for elections next year. Tsvangirai MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said Mr. Mugabe in demanding elections in 2011 was merely recycling an old threat.
Political observer Earnest Mudzengi told reporter Patience Rusere that he believes President Mugabe is ready to bulldoze the country into holding new elections next year.
In other government business, Zimbabwe’s ministers of Health and Water Resources have issued appeals for a total of more than US$1 billion in donor assistance to restore social services. But such targets may be unrealistic given donor fatigue and Western reluctance to fund major projects without major reforms in Harare.
Tatenda Gumbo reported on the disparity between ministerial hopes and economic reality.
