Neither ‘Joint’ nor ‘Integrated’: the Joint Integrated Units and the Future of the CPA (HSBA Issue Brief 10)
The formation and functioning of Sudan’s Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of January 2005, has proved a major sticking- point in the implementation of the peace agreement. The JIUs are military units composed of members of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), and are designed to serve both functional and symbolic purposes. Functionally, the JIUs are intended to fill security vacuums and to provide a unified military capability to meet internal security needs during the sixyear interim period prior to the southern referendum on secession in 2011. Symbolically, the JIUs are supposed to demonstrate national unity during the interim period and to serve both as a key confidence-builder between the parties and as a foundation for a future national army, should the referendum result in a vote for unity.
Despite the importance placed on the JIUs in the CPA, and the fact that they provide a gauge of the parties’ commitment to the agreement, their purpose and status are not well understood by the international community. Neither ‘Joint’ nor ‘Integrated’: the Joint Integrated Units and the Future of the CPA reviews the JIUs’ current status, discusses challenges to their deployment and functionality, and explores the consequences of these challenges for the overall implementation of the CPA.
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