Rape, torture & killing report bears truth: Minister
Features . (22nd April 2013) - "You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there," a writer and churchman Edwin Louis Cole once said. The Texas born wasn’t a politician; he was the founder of the Christian Men’s Foundation that he used to help christian men until he died in 2002. But his assertion is what South Sudan government seems to suggest about its poor human rights record one year into nationhood. The government has admitted that a human rights report alleging rapes, torture and extra-judicial killings and detentions last year reflected some truth. The United States Department of State’s report said that kidnapping, arbitrary arrests, intimidation of journalists, denial of fair trial and use of excessive force, among others, occurred around the country. “The government seldom took steps to punish military or civilian officials who committed abuses, and impunity was a major problem,” the 37-page report said. It cited an incident in Torit, where police beat a Kenyan for allegedly selling counterfeit drugs. In Bor, the report said, the army tortured a civilian who died the next day of his injuries, for intervening in an inter-communal dispute. In a separate incident, army soldier General Mariel Nuor Jok, was given medical leave to Nairboi when he was on trial for disappearance of engineer John Luis Silvio, but he did not return. The Western Bahr el Ghazal State government continued claiming no involvement in the 2011 disappearance of the South Sudan Islamic Council secretary general, Al-Shayk Foud Richard, and there was no investigation, the report said. It further said that on September 8, 2012, security forces beat peace activist and entertainer Emmanuel Jal unconscious after he stopped his car to ask for directions. It also said the government did not release its investigation into reports of rape and abuse of female cadets at John Garang Unified Police Academy in Rajaf in 2011. The UN Mission in South Sudan documented 12 rapes and six attempted rapes in a disarmament exercise in Jonglei’s Pibor, the report said. A seperate case was not prosecuted for a woman raped and assaulted in police custody in Juba. On July 31 2012, according to the report, South Sudan army soldiers beat and detained Farid Mahdouba in Juba after he delivered a court summons to illegal occupants of land owned by his family. There were several of such incidents in the report that paint a dark picuture about South Sudan’s human rights condition. Other incidents include the conditions in overcrowded prisons, conditions of work, forced labor and gender violence. “The transitional constitution prohibits such practices; however, government security forces tortured, beat, and harassed political opponents, journalists, and human rights workers during the year,” said the report. The South Sudan Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin said some of the incidents in the report were true. “Some of these incidences are happening. We know they are happening. The most important thing is what we are doing for these things to be corrected,” the minister told Radio Miraya. Marial said President Salva Kiir has directed the security organs to uphold the rule of law and avoid use of excessive force. “Nobody would expect us to resolve these issues over 24 hours. It is a new nation, we are doing our best. I am sure by next year our human rights image will improve definitely,” he said. -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oo%2BkBjDdxjAuVgaukS3Vhafr2m5%2BrEM3%3Dv1gCY7%2BgH5JA%40mail.gmail.com?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
