Three Lessons in Repression from Khartoum to Juba – By Katie Campo
Posted on June 26, 2015 by AfricanArgumentsEditor
UN Day Celebration at UNMISS
Lesson #1: Expel outspoken UN leaders. Toby Lanzer (second from right)
– Special Representative on the UN in South Sudan – was asked to leave
the country in early June (UN photo library).
Civil society activists in Khartoum suffered at the hands of Sudanese
authorities for decades, but there was hope for South Sudanese
activists after the country seceded from the north on July 9, 2011.
Most of South Sudan’s leading activists and journalists relocated to
Juba, where they hoped to start afresh and contribute to developing
their proud new nation. Today, almost four years later, South Sudan
has crumbled into a war zone, and civil society is on the defensive
yet again. South Sudanese authorities have taken a page out of
Khartoum’s playbook by targeting activists and journalists. Like their
brothers in the north, South Sudan’s security authorities now expel
foreign aid workers, shut down civil society organizations, and seize
newspapers.
Lesson #1: Expel Outspoken UN Leaders
Six months ago, Sudanese authorities expelled two leading UN officials
in the north, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ali al-Za’atari
and UN Development Program chief Yvonne Helle. Juba watched and
learned: earlier this month, the top humanitarian official in South
Sudan, Toby Lanzer, was expelled. Mr. Lanzer served as deputy special
representative at the UN Mission in South Sudan and used Twitter to
call attention to the utter failure of South Sudan’s leaders to
resolve the ongoing conflict. In February, South Sudan’s Minister of
Information Michael Makuei even proclaimed in a moment of frustration,
“That UN — I will shut it down.” It appears he has got what he wanted,
and there has been little reaction from the international community.
Lesson #2: Go After the Activists
Sudanese authorities have made a habit of shutting down civil society
organizations, detaining activists, and generally silencing dissent.
In September of last year, the Regional Center for the Development of
Civil Society, an NGO working to build political participation, was
raided and shut down. The organization’s equipment and files,
including computers and hard drives, were seized for inspection.
Within the last two years, a number of other organizations experienced
similar raids and closures – al Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment,
the Sudanese Studies Center, and the Sudanese Writers Union, to name a
few.
While the restrictive environment in Khartoum is nothing new, Juba’s
changing attitude towards civil society is something to fear. In the
last six months, the situation has deteriorated rapidly, such that
some activists cannot travel anywhere alone for fear they will be
“disappeared.” Human rights leaders are called in for questioning on a
routine basis, others receive anonymous, threatening phone calls in
the night.
For the first two weeks of April, the border between Sudan and South
Sudan was a mirror. On April 12, Sudanese activist Sandra Kadouda was
snatched from her car and held in detention for several days, where
she was reportedly beaten. Some fellow activists believe she is only
alive today because she had been talking to a friend on the phone, who
immediately took action when she was taken. That same week, some 750
miles south in Juba, South Sudanese opposition politician Peter Mayen
Majongdit was taken from his home and held incommunicado for seven
days. When he was released, he said he had been blindfolded and badly
beaten in detention.
Lesson #3: Silence the Media
On February 16, fourteen Sudanese newspapers were confiscated from the
printing press before hitting the streets. The Minister of Information
warned that any publication that might harm economic or social
security would be prohibited. In December, Al Midan newspaper, the
Communist party mouthpiece, was confiscated, and Editor-in-Chief
Madeeha Abdullah was accused of undermining the constitution, a charge
that carries the death penalty; her crime: publishing a quote by rebel
leader Abdelaziz al-Hilu in her newspaper.
Meanwhile in Juba, violations against freedom of the press continued
to pile up over the last year. In August, Radio Miraya reporter George
Livio was arrested, and the government shut down South Sudan’s most
popular radio station, Radio Bakheita. Veteran journalist Alfred Taban
spends about as much time in detention as he does writing articles. In
February, authorities shut down Nation Mirror newspaper for reporting
on a rebel attack against government forces. Like Madeeha Abdullah in
the north, reporters in Juba have been warned not to broadcast
interviews with rebel leaders.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Sudan 174 out of 180 countries in its
2015 World Press Freedom Index. Forty-nine spots up sits South Sudan
at number 125. At the rate South Sudanese authorities are learning
from their former brothers in the north, it won’t be long before South
Sudan slips down closer to its neighbor.
Until South Sudan’s civil war erupted in December 2013, the country
was one of the United States’ closest allies in Africa. As National
Security Advisor Susan Rice said, “we helped to midwife the peaceful
emergence of an independent South Sudan.” Now that this nation we
helped birth has matured into an irresponsible, war-hungry state
hell-bent on repressing civil society and media freedoms, what is
there to do? It is time for Juba’s leaders to unlearn their lessons
from Khartoum; and it is time for South Sudanese civil society and the
international community to make them do that.
Katie Campo is a Program Officer at the National Endowment for
Democracy. She previously served as a Political Officer at the U.S.
Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, where she specialized in Darfur. Katie
writes in her personal capacity, and views expressed are her own. You
can follow her on Twitter at @KatieCampo1.
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One thought on “Three Lessons in Repression from Khartoum to Juba – By
Katie Campo”
Jack C says:
June 26, 2015 at 4:12 pm
Great article. There is nothing sadder than man’s inhumanity to
man. Let’s hope that South Sudan will change course. Yes, its leaders
face challenges. But many other developing countries have shown the
way.
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