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Southern Sudan Relief Agencies Form Merger

African Church Information Service
NEWS
February 17, 2003
Posted to the web February 17, 2003

By Makur Kot Dhuor
Rumbek
Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA) and the Relief Association
of South Sudan (RASS) have merged.
SRRA and RASS were, before their merger early this month, humanitarian wings of
Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and Sudan People's Defence
Forces (SPDF) respectively. They will now operate as one relief body for the
SPLM/A.
Their union is in compliance with recommendations of a workshop held in Rumbek
between December 18 and 24, last year.
The workshop was organised to facilitate implementation of a Nairobi
Declaration on Unity and Merger of the SPLM/A and SPDF as earlier agreed by
their leaders, Dr.John Garang de Mabior and Dr.Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon
respectively, in Nairobi on October 23, 2002.
The merger of the two relief bodies heralds unity of the people of the New
Sudan, who are convinced that their needs require a united approach under one
humanitarian wing of the SPLM/A.
The New Sudan consists of five regions namely, Bahr-el-Ghazal, Upper Nile,
Equatoria, Southern Kordofan, Nuba Mountains and the Funj, also known as
Southern Blue Nile.
The new humanitarian organisation will adopt the name Sudan Relief and
Rehabilitation Commission (SRRC).
A technical committee comprising the two executive directors of SRRA and RASS
(Elijah Malok and Mr. Thomas Dut Gatkek respectively), two legal officers and
one person from the SPLM National Peace and Reconciliation Desk, shall prepare
a document that will merge the constitutions of the organisations.
The new constitution is expected to be ready latest March 31. It will outline
SRRC's new mandate, vision, mission and purpose, keeping in mind the five R's
(relief, reparation, rehabilitation reconstruction, and resettlement).
Within the first week of April, 2003, the new constitution of SRRC will be
presented to the leadership of SPLM/A for approval, after which SRRA and RASS
will be officially dissolved, and the new relief body (SRRC) officially
commissioned.

   

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