Screening of unified forces implies hope

The departure of the joint security committee to the training sites to start the screening of the unified forces at the training centres across the country is welcome news. It is very reassuring.

As of yesterday, the committee for the Equatoria region was expected to travel to the area and start screening the unified forces. The team also promised to carry out their activities through the Christmas season and expressed readiness to spend Christmas in the training camps.

Although the process has been delayed for quite a long time, the good news is that the process of screening has already begun. This is a very significant process that must take place for the unified forces to be graduated.

 It will also enable the parties to know the combatants who are ready to continue serving in the organised forces and those who want to go for disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR).

The screening should have been done before those combatants were sent for training. The DDR process was supposed to take place first so that those weapons are removed from their hands and they are helped to reintegrate as civilians into society. This would enable them to become active participants in the peace process.

However, this screening will allow those who deserted the training camps to return to the centres to prepare for graduation. They are those who left the training camps and joined the neighbouring communities, either in framing activities or cutting charcoal as a means for their survival.

Some of them have been sources of insecurity in the communities, and the start of the screening would now allow them to go back to the training camps.

Secondly, the presence of the unified forces is very important because these neutral forces would be tasked with protecting the country as the national army.

The issue of the national army has been one of the major challenges in the country because most of the officers are more obedient and loyal to their commanders than to the country and the protection of the rights of the citizens. This time, the citizens would like to see a national army with the diversity of the South Sudanese tribes who are committed to the protection of the constitution instead of the individuals. Every army around the world has to defend the territorial integrity of the country from any external aggressors as well as the constitution from being abused by self-centred politicians.