South Sudan protest organizer condemns gov’t ‘intimidation’ and ‘misinformation’

JUBA – South Sudan’s People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) has condemned in a statement what it calls a continued ‘intimidation’ against activists and yesterday’s arrest of an activist and a cleric in Yei River County by members of Military Intelligence of the country’s South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF).

“The People’s Coalition for Civil Action condemns the unlawful arrests, detention and intimidation of civil society leaders and public misinformation by the government of South Sudan,” the protest organizer said in a statement extended to Sudans Post on Wednesday.

“In Yei River County, the bishop of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and a civil society leader were arrested by Military Intelligence and detained at the Joint Operations facility since yesterday. This is in addition the unlawful detention of Hon. Kuel Aguer Kuel for over three weeks The Coalition demands their immediate release,” the statement added.

The statement accused the Inspector General of South Sudan Police Service General Majak Akec who said earlier that the planned protests are illegal because the entity organizing the protest has not been registered by the government.

“On different media briefings, the Inspector General and the Spokesperson of the South Sudan National Police Service have misinformed the public that the planned demonstrations by the People’s Coalition for Civil Action are illegal. In these acts of misinformation by the supposed senior officers of the law, no references were made to the constitution and the law, which prohibits peaceful demonstrations in the country,” the statement added.

“They also failed to explain to the public why the law only allows government sponsored demonstrations including one held in Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State against the United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei, on August 12, 2021,” the statement added.

The statement went on to allege that security operatives in Western Bahr el Ghazal state have summon civil society leaders there and compelled them to write a statement in which the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) was denounced something the statement said has taken place in Juba.

“In Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal, State authorities summoned civil society leaders for a meeting on August 26, 2021 to intimidate and force them to issue public statements denouncing and distancing themselves from the People’s Coalition for Civil Action and the planned peaceful demonstrations,” the statement said.

“In Juba and several states, civil society leaders were summoned to National Security offices and others called on telephone, accused of supporting the call for peaceful demonstrations and warned not to do so. Civil society leaders are also receiving threatening phone calls. Some are followed by tinted security cars. In Juba, the State Governor of Central Equatoria and the Mayor of Juba City Council have also been leading desperate attempts to appease boda-boda riders and small business owners not to participate in the peaceful demonstrations,” the statement added.

It further said the state governor Emmanuel Adil Anthony has “promised to stop harassment of the motorists and looting of their hard earned money by the traffic police. As an appeasement policy, the Mayor also instructed the notorious street tax collectors of the City Council to stop over charging businesses in the city until after the planned demonstrations.”

“Beside heavy deployments in Juba, the authorities have started deploying armed National Security personnel at the offices of civil society organizations and increasing unwarranted surveillance on civil society leaders.

“The Coalition has been reliably informed that active and vocal civil society leaders will be arrested in advance of commencement of the demonstrations scheduled for August 30, 2021.”

It further condemned “these desperate attempts and unlawful acts of panic by the state, Juba City Council and County authorities; and the National Security Service to intimidate and silence the public and the civil society” and “reminds the authorities that in the declaration of our country’s independence, the people of South Sudan ‘RESOLVED to establish a system of governance that upholds the rule of law, justice, democracy, human rights and respect for diversity’ and there is no place for these intimidations of the people and stifling of the civic space in this revolutionary country.”