'Major incident is not anticipated, but once-in-a-lifetime events like these can lead to inevitable absenteism and drunken behaviour which may affect safety and security, and our tried and tested systems and procedures are designed to mitigate the heightened risk, and we will obviously be extra vigilant as events unfold over the weekend.'
Financial Times correspondent Katrina Manson paints the picture:
When South Sudan becomes the world's newest country on Saturday, in a long-wrought split from the Khartoum government in the north, it is going to be uncomfortable in more ways than one.
Speedy tarmac laying, assiduous sweeping and practice rallies cannot disguise the fact that the capital, Juba, remains a dusty town with container crates and tents for hotel rooms and dirt roads for thoroughfares, heavy with armed soldiers.
How then, to host 30 African heads of state, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, senior western diplomats and assorted sizable retinues?
The options are slight. So tight is supply that even a poky container-crate room regularly goes for $200 a night. Stay at the Chinese-built Beijing Juba Hotel and watch a brave chandelier sparkle amid swaying prefab walls, while clocks boldly display the time in those two most critical global hubs: Beijing and Juba.
So full is the tiny national airport, it has been forced to close down to commercial flights for days as state planes jostle for apron space.
Foreign secretaries must share planes and hundreds of journalists arriving to document the independence celebrations are frantic for a bed.
Desperate to emulate the pomp that greets such state occasions the world over, what is the answer for a brand new country keen to win foreign investment, spur business and show its best side to the world?
Why, with only days to go to the big day - commandeer, of course.
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| Guard supervisors receiving notification of anticipated movement restrictions |
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