Governors of the three states of greater Equatoria have proposed a regional quota system to ensure ethnic balance in the army and security forces. The proposal comes after concerns that tribalization of particular military units helped lead to the current crisis.
Governor Clement Wani Konga of Central Equtoria, Governor Louis Lobong Lojore of Eastern Equatoria, and Governor Joseph Bakasoro of Western Equatoria met on Friday in Juba at the Emergency Equatoria Conference.
In a resolutions document issued after the meeting, the governors proposed “working out a regional quota system for recruiting people into the army and other security organs in order to discourage future ethnic coups, mutinies or rebellions.”
Officially, South Sudan’s army is diverse and ethnically integrated. This policy gained particular impetus with the Juba Declaration of 2006, a landmark moment in terms of tribal reconciliation, when more men from both Dinka and Nuer began serving side-by-side in the army, police, prisons and wildlife services.
However, some army units are more integrated than others, and events of last month have fractured many previously integrated units along tribal lines or prompted defections.
Additionally, there is a widespread perception that men of the two mentioned tribes dominate the organized forces. Equatoria’s governors have called for “massive mobilization” of men from their regions in order to “protect the people and properties of Equatoria and the Nation.”
The three governors did not elaborate on how their proposal would be implemented. Presumably, the regional quota system would set recruitment limits by geographic area, whether by county, state or by historic province (the three regions of Greater Bahr al Ghazal, Greater Equatoria and Greater Upper Nile).
This would ensure de facto ethnic diversity without requiring the army to actually recruit on an ethnic basis per se.
According to the resolutions document, the three governors have also insisted on removing the military from politics and ensuring that it is not affiliated to any political party. On this point, it should be noted that Joseph Bakosoro is the only governor to have won office as an independent, while Clement Wani was until 2006 a member of NCP and not SPLM.
Photo: CES Governor Clement Wani Konga (center) and Vice President James Wani Igga (right)
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