Graduation of forces overdue; should be handled this time

On Wednesday, the Presidency held a meeting in Juba to discuss the issues having to do with the pending Transitional Security Arrangement under Chapter Two of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (RARCSS).

During the meeting, the Joint Defence Board (JDB) briefed the presidency on the process of screening, reorganisation, and graduation of the unified forces.

However, the Joint Defence Board raised concerns about the challenges facing the forces, such as flooding in most parts of the country that hindered the movement to most cantonments and training sites, while maintaining that they have managed to prepare the forces for graduation.

After the presentation, the Joint Transitional Security Committee (JTSC) has been directed by the presidency to come up with the graduation timeline for subsequent approval by the Presidency in the next meeting. 

The Deputy Chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Council, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who was also present in the meeting, commended the Government of South Sudan for the tremendous progress made in the implementation of the Revitalised Peace Agreement. However, Hamdan gave one week to the armed parties to the agreement, mainly the SPLM-IG, SPLM-IO, and SSOA, to finalise the presentation of the army’s command to allow the graduation of forces to take place within the shortest time possible.

Although only one week has been given to the principal parties to resolve the stalemate over the command structure, the news cannot make one start dancing without witnessing D-Day. Our leaders have taught the citizens to behave like Thomas in the Bible, who refused to believe that Christ had risen from death lest he sees the crucifixion marks on his hands.

A doubting Thomas was sceptical and refused to believe it without direct personal experience. He refused to believe the risen Jesus had appeared to 10 other apostles before he met him.

The parties to the agreement have on several occasions promised to graduate the unified forces within a month, but several months have passed without meeting the deadline. The last time they promised to graduate the forces was last year, when they said the forces would graduate in the first week of October 2021. But several months have passed, and we are in February 2022; not even a single soldier has graduated.

So, such an elusive and broken promise has made most citizens behave like Thomas because the leaders do not keep the promise they make to the citizens. Sometimes it makes the media a big house of lies and propaganda.

This time, the parties to the peace agreement need to demonstrate responsibility and live up to their words. They should adhere to the one week they have given to pave the way for the graduation of the forces. We cannot talk about the elections when the forces that are supposed to protect the nation are still being owned by some individuals, and a good number of them are in the jungles.