2 army officers arrested over land theft in Juba

JUBA – Police authorities in South Sudan’s capital Juba have arrested at least two senior army officers for allegedly printing and selling fake land tokens to the public, according to a senior local government official who declined to identify the officers by names.

Juba County’s Press Secretary Taban Stephen is quoted by Eye Radio as saying that the authorities, in light of land theft, had changed issuance of plot documents from tokens to forms in order to enable the authorities to trace down those selling land illegally.

“We have been having this issue, but when the authorities changed to using forms instead of tokens, that is when we were able to trace these people and arrested them,” Stephen said.

The senior local government official said he was unable to identify the culprits because they are under investigation and are being held at Kubri Haboba police station.

“We know that they are soldiers and they have ranks,” Stephen revealed.

DRAFT LAND POLICY

This comes as the government, in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on Tuesday convened a three-day national validation workshop to discuss new legislation to regulate land disputes.

Land grabbing and disputes over plots, and their subsequent violence are common problems in South Sudan.

The workshop aims to finalize the dialogue initiated around the Land Policy and to obtain the support of the various stakeholders in land governance in a bid to restore peace and sustainable development.

The validation workshop brought together representatives from national ministries, academia, civil society, traditional leaders, communities, Land Commission, diplomats, and traditional leaders.

Speaking during the launch of validation in Juba on Tuesday, Michael Chiengjiek, Minister for Land, Housing and Physical Infrastructure said the land policy will help to address land conflict in the country.

“The land policy has been a very contentious issue and all the stakeholders were actually up and down fighting among themselves because of this unregulated land,” Chiengjiek said.

Chiengjiek said the policy address rampant land grabbing which he said has “become cancer in our country.”

“I want to assure our people the policy everybody has been waiting for is in place, and it will be the only policy that will address all our issues including this rampant land grabbing that has become cancer in our country,” he said.

Meshack Malo UN FOA Country Representative said the policy will govern, administer, and manage land-related issues.

“The importance of this policy, this policy is one of the ways of South Sudan as a country putting its house in order, this policy on land is governed, administer, management and this policy will begin to create that environment,” Malo said.

“With the land policy, this is the way to convert land not to bring problems but into an opportunity, the land is a great opportunity everywhere across the world but it has been very unfortunate that in South Sudan,” Malo added.

Malo said that the land issues have caused disputes in towns, cities even rural areas but this policy will transform the land issues into an opportunity.

“We believe that this will help even in local investment, this will offer guidelines, Investment cannot happen when we are not clear as south Sudanese, what is our tenure policy.”