X-mas in Juba…
The Christmas of 2010 will be remembered in many different ways by those who celebrated it in Juba, Southern Sudan.
Some parents working with the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) will remember how they had to tell their families that their salaries have not been remitted to the banks; and that the banks will not be opened until after the 28th.
Others will recall having to cancel trips to spend x-mas outside the country because there were no US dollars to be found anywhere in town even in the blackest of markets.
Young men, and especially young girls will recall the experience quiet differently…
Some weeks back, over five thousand police officers where graduated from a training facility some kilometers from Juba. In what looked like a continuation of their training, most of them were deployed in roads, markets and other public places in town.
Just before x-mas, I thought those deployed to ‘regulate’ traffic were the worst of there kind (I get back to that later…)
From x-mas eve up til yesterday, these bunch of new recruits started enforcing some ‘law and order’ that got everyone asking where they got them orders from.
Young girls dressed in pants have been caned and others threatened with unheard of sentences. On the 27th some girls were still locked up for indecent dressing….
Some rastafari friends of my have told of arrests and intimidation to have their years of hard-grown dreads cut off in public….
One wonders what is really happening! GOSS officials have of course denied that this had anything to do with their policies.
merry x-mas y’all… I am just waiting for the 9th to celebrate…
“Young girls dressed in pants have been caned and others threatened with unheard of sentences. On the 27th some girls were still locked up for indecent dressing….”
This is unacceptable!I thought such ridiculous policies exist only in the northern part of the country not in the South.
I wander what did the police commissioner and minister of Internal Affairs have to say.