Machar tells UN his country reforms security sector and promotes peace Article Comments (15)
Email Print Save ________________________________ April 16, 2013 (JUBA) – The United Nations Assistant Secretary General, Dmitry Titov, who is in charge of the rule of law and security institutions in the UN’s department of peacekeeping operations is in the country to discuss with the leadership issues of peace and security in South Sudan. The visiting UN senior official from New York on Tuesday met with the country’s Vice-President, Riek Machar Teny, and discussed a wide-range of issues, including security, relations between South Sudan and Sudan, fate of Abyei as well as the role the United Nations peacekeeping forces should continue to play in executing their mandate in the new country. The UN official told the press after meeting with Machar that they also discussed issues of security sector reform, protection of civilians and national dialogue in the country. Relations between South Sudan and Sudan and the need to continue negotiations on the other outstanding issues between the two countries were discussed. President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir during his last week visit to Juba agreed with the South Sudanese counterpart, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to form a joint high level ministerial committee to be co-chaired by the two vice-presidents, Riek Machar Teny and Ali Osman Taha, in order to speedily work to resolve on the sticking issues. Machar assured the UN chief of the government’s efforts in trying its best to protect the civilians and working to further strengthen the capacity of police in community policing. The South Sudan army, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), was being transformed into a professional army, he said. They also touched on the ongoing program on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants and the plan to turn them into productive work brigades and units that will be self-reliant and contribute to the development of the country. Vice-President’s press secretary James Gatdet Dak, further added that the fate of Abyei and the ongoing negotiations to establish its administration that would eventually lead to conduct of its referendum were touched on. He further said the UN official also expressed interest to see South Sudan play an active role in bringing to the negotiation table Khartoum government and its rebels in Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan. Two days ago, the South Sudanese president issued a decree withdrawing all delegated powers assigned to his vice-president without details about these attributions. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
