---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alfred Lokuji <[email protected]> Date: Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 11:24 AM Subject: Re: [SouthSudanInfo] Unity state: Three WFP staff arrested in connection with missing colleague To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Dear Riek Machar, Here is an opportunity to stand on principles. If the WFP employees are not Suspects the reasons for being kept under police custory do not amount to a heap of beans. You do not hold someone in custody "jail" unless they are suspects, or for their own protection in rare cases. The ghosts of Ibrahim Aboud, Mohammed Ahmed Mahgoub are smiling in their graves when South Sudan behaves like this. Alfred Sebit Lokuji Vivacel: (+211) (0) 955 213 353 [email protected] "Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it!" George Santayana. Corollary: Truth-telling in repentance is a necessary condition for Reconciliation ----- Original Message ----- From: Elisabeth Janaina <[email protected]> To: Cc: Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2013 9:22 AM Subject: [SouthSudanInfo] Unity state: Three WFP staff arrested in connection with missing colleague Unity state: Three WFP staff arrested in connection with missing colleague By Bonifacio Taban Kuich April 26, 2013 (BENTIU) - Officials from South Sudan’s Unity state on Thursday confirmed the arrest of three employees of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in connection with the disappearance of a colleague in the field. WFP worker Samuel Ruai Kuoth went missing while on a on a field visit on 17 May in Payinjiar county after telling colleagues he was going to a nearby market. Investigations into Kuoth’s disappearance have so far not been able to establish any further information about his whereabouts or welfare. WFP sources say Kuoth was physically fit and did not suffer from a mental illness. Following police investigations into the matter, the attorney-general and the security advisor on Tuesday ordered the arrest of the three WFP employees. According to authorities, the WFP team had been planning to make a second stop at a food storage facility in Pulmuk prior to Kuoth’s disappearance. The arrested staff told authorities they had gone to check on Kuoth after 30 minutes and conducted a search of the surrounding area after they were unable to locate him. This apparently contradicted reports from Kuoths family, who say he went missing in the evening. However, WFP staff in the field with Kuoth at the time of his disappearance have denied the claims. It is the second time Kuoth has disappeared, having gone missing for one day at Yida refugee camp, where he was earlier posted as part of a separate operation. WFP communications officer George Fominyen told VOA on Thursday that the agency would not be making any comment while investigations in Unity state are underway. Deputy governor Michael Chiengjiek Geay confirmed the detention of the three UN WFP staffs, saying the arrests had been ordered by the attorney-general while investigations are carried out. Geay said the employees were being held for questioning over discrepancies in the timeline when Kuoth went missing. “Yes the three staffs are now in police custody for questioning until the police find the facts”, he said. Geay has dismissed suggestions that the detention of the WFP staff and allegations they are being mistreated in Bentiu prison had sparked tensions in the local community. He also denied they were being held as suspects in the case. “We have never considered them as the real suspect in what had happened. The reason that the police kept them in custody is just only to investigate and know the facts,” he said. “A team of WFP visits them and talks to them and they were even seen, for those who were alleging that the guys are [being] tortured, this is not true; these are just false allegations”, he added. Last week, a WFP security team visited Bentiu, where they also held discussions with county officials there Meanwhile, Unity state authorities say investigations into the circumstances surrounding Kuoth’s disappearance, with a committee composed of family members, WFP representatives and authorities are due to travel to Payinjiar county for furthest investigations. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
