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News Article by REUTERS posted on August 13, 2006 at 13:15:01: EST (-5 GMT)

US firm to turn south Sudan rebels into soldiers

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - U.S. private security firm and defence contractor DynCorp International Inc. will begin next year to reshape thousands of former southern Sudanese guerrilla fighters into a professional army, an official said.

Last year's peace deal between southern Sudan and the Khartoum government ended one Africa's longest civil wars, bringing many fighters out of the bush.

U.N. officers and human rights activists say the former rebels urgently need training into a modern force under control of southern Sudan government.

"The military training could start anywhere from early next year and it will be ongoing for the next several years," DynCorp vice president for international business development, Al Rigney, told Reuters in an interview on Saturday.

"It's always a challenge when a rebel militia force has too much idle time. We need to put them to work quickly," he said on the sidelines of the first trade fair in southern Sudan's capital Juba.

DynCorp, one of the fair's sponsors, has almost $40 million in U.S. State Department contracts to build barracks, provide telecommunications and training to the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

"The U.S. government has decided that a stable military force will create a stable country," Rigney said.

He denied the contracts included any arms deal with southern Sudan's government, which donors say has funnelled the biggest chunk of its 2006/07 budget -- some 40 percent -- into defence.

"This contract does not involve sending arms to the SPLA. The idea is not to help them in offensive purposes," he said.

Slow implementation of the deal that ended the war pitting the Islamist northern Khartoum government against southern rebels practising Christianity and African religions has frustrated many in the south.

Two million people were killed during the two-decade conflict, and many southerners say peace is threatened by disputes over oil money and oil-producing areas on the north-south border.

PROFESSIONAL ARMY

The deal specified there would be two armies, the north's Sudanese Armed Forces and the south's SPLA.

DynCorp, which has also trained police in Iraq and soldiers in Liberia, expects to complete work on barracks in the traditional SPLA stronghold Rumbek by the end of the year.

Once a shell of bomb-damaged brick buildings, the barracks have been refurbished with everything from new roofs and fencing, to running water and electricity.

DynCorp has similar plans for army headquarters in up to 10 locations, one in each of the south's states, each housing between 3,000-5,000 soldiers. Work will begin next year in Malakal and Bentiu, Rigney said.

Although the south has been at peace since the 2005 agreement, it is still common to see former rebels wandering around villages and market towns in a mishmash of camouflaged fatigues with rifles slung over their shoulders.

An operation to demobilise, disarm and reintegrate combatants has yet to gather pace in the vast region of thorn trees and swampy savannah, while rights group Human Rights Watch says forcible disarmament of local communities by the SPLA has killed hundreds this year, many of them civilians.

"They ought to be taught that use of weapons should be structured through proper chain of command, and not used to settle disputes," Rigney said.

DynCorp will cover a spectrum of issues under its training programme, teaching soldiers rules of engagement, to respect the chain of command and how to drill in formation.

"We need to get them walking and talking like professionals," Rigney said.