S. Sudan: Rights group renews calls for justice six months after
Isaiah Abraham’s dealth
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July 5, 2013 (JUBA) - Six months after the murder of a prominent
opinion writer, a South Sudanese rights group has renewed calls for
the government to bring his killers to justice.
JPEG - 13.5 kb
South Sudanese political commentator, Isaiah Ding Abraham Chan Awuol,
who was shot dead by unknown gunmen in front of his house in Juba,
early on the morning of Wednesday 5 December 2012 (Photo: Hayat)
Isaiah Abraham, who was regularly published in various news outlets,
including Sudan Tribune, had written a series of articles criticising
senior members of South Sudan’s ruling party - the SPLM - before his
death and had received anonymous death threats, according to those
close to him.
Abraham, whose full name was Isaiah Diing Abraham Chan Awuol, was
murdered by unknown armed persons on the night of 5 December 2012 at
his home in a suburb of the capital, Juba.
The outcry that followed led to the government to promise a swift and
thorough investigation, but six months on, no progress has been made
on the case.
At the time, people close the Abraham and some activists accused
elements of South Sudan’s security services of involvement in the
murder. The government has, however, denied this, although murder has
been a major embarrassment to the ruling SPLM and contributed to the
new nation’s poor rankings in press freedom and failed states indexes
this year.
South Sudan celebrates its second independence anniversary on 9 July,
but attacks on the press are becoming more frequent according to media
freedom groups.
In the five months after Abrahm’s murder the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) "documented at least 12 cases of attacks,
harassment, and detention of journalists in South Sudan. In all but
two of the cases, security officials were the perpetrators. Security
agents, including police, have routinely harassed, intimidated, and
occasionally detained journalists."
In a May letter to president Salva Kiir, CPJ expressed "deep concern
about the deteriorating state of press freedom" in the world’s
youngest nation, which fought for independence on the basis of
securing liberty for South Sudanese after decades of conflict with
various Khartoum governments.
In a statement marking six months since Abraham’s murder, one of South
Sudan’s most vocal human rights groups said that the government still
had many questions to answer over the case.
The South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy (SSHURSA) said that
it "strongly believes that the answers lie with the Government of
South Sudan."
"In the interest of justice and due process of the law, it would be
proper to have the government answer" questions about the case "in a
clear and frank language", which it had so failed to do so, the
advocacy group said.
South Sudan’s information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said in
December that a number of suspects had been arrested, but their
identities have remained secret and no one has been brought forward
for prosecution.
Three days after the murder, Marial acknowledged what many South
Sudanese already believed government was 70% sure Abraham’s death was
an "assassination".
The "silence" of the government on the matter since then, SSHURSA
said, confirms their theory "that the state of South Sudan, clearly
knows who killed Isaiah Abraham", who they describe as "a man who was
true to his conscience [who was] killed for challenging evils meted on
his fellow citizens."
The government’s inaction an "injustice" to Abraham’s family "and also
a violation to Article 19(4) of the Transitional Constitution of South
Sudan 2011 which stipulates a speedy and fair trial of the accused
person(s)", the statement said.
The human rights group called on the government to either expedite the
prosecution of those suspected of carrying out the murder or "publicly
announce that it has failed".
SSHURSA said it believes the government is "covering up" the
circumstances of Abraham’s death, even questioning the truth of the
government’s announcement that it had arrested some suspects.
(ST)
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