A top UN human rights official was assaulted by South Sudan police officers, the office of the UN rights chief said Friday, slaming the incident as “totally unacceptable.” Benedict Sannoh, who heads the human rights section of the UN South Sudan mission, was “severely assaulted in a hotel lobby in Juba by around 12 South Sudan police officers,” said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The police “beat, kicked and punched him in a sustained fashion while he was in a foetal position on the floor,” said the spokesman, adding that the officers had the intention of searching Sannoh’s room.
Following the beating on August 20, the UN offical’s room was searched and ransacked, and he was detained for several hours before being released and taken to a UN hospital where he stayed for five days. “The High Commissioner considers this incident to be totally unacceptable,” said Colville.
South Sudanese authorities have said they will probe the case, and Colville said his office will “follow the conduct of that investigation closely.” He stressed that the attack not only violated UN international treaties on immunity, but also flouted an agreement between South Sudan and the international body.
We published the Below Article in: http://www.southsudannations.com On October, 23, 2011
Governor to blame for Acholi-Madi crisis
BY: Joseph Oyet, TORIT, EASTERN EQUATORIA STATE
OCT. 23/2011, SSN; We want the Acholi Community must not be taken a scapegoat for actions done by government officers. Being concerned about the two tribes, we believe actions by military personal against civil society must not be pushed to us by not telling the truth to the public.
Military personnel are supposed to protect the civil society but not to bring confusion among them. On the ground, people are taking us the Acholi as war mongers and some of these people are non-Madi who know the truth.
The Governor of Eastern Equatoria State (EES) openly mentioned to the president that the problem was among individuals from the two ethnic groups. By this statement he caused a lot of anger and argument for which many tribes are finger-pointing at us. We don't want his statement to remain like that.
It's completely wrong comparing to what happened. Better JJ Okot and the Commissioner of Magwi to take responsibility for their actions. They committed crimes which the government is turning on us the Acholi tribe, why?
These are some things bad entering in our community for which we are concerned. I don't think any one will agree to take responsibility of a dead body killed by somebody else.
If Madi people choose hostility with us on their own, I am a Community man. People know who I am in fighting for the right course. In this particular incident, our community or ethnic group as mentioned by EES governor was not involved. We cannot take it, let them have it. They created it and it’s them to keep it if they don't want to solve it. Not us Acholi tribe.
Almost all neighboring tribes are turning against us because they know the truth which was covered by EES governor in his report to the president. I hope your honor will understand and get back to us in case you need more highlights.
We're greatly disappointed about the EES governor report to the president of the Republic of South Sudan concerning the recent Acholi and Madi land crisis which left two Madi men dead in Moli, a village in Magwi County.
After reading the report in http://www.gurtong.net, I came to realize that the EES governor is not committed to solve problem between Acholi tribe and the Madi tribe. It was disgrace to take wrong information to the President.
If people like him can misreport what is practically wrong, cover the truth and tell the opposite to the president, what is he trying to do to the two tribes?
As I write some of us don’t support the act of Brigadier JJ Okot and Commissioner of Magwi County. The claim of EES governor in the office of the president is a way of blocking the president from knowing what is happening on the ground.
Some of us the civil society from Acholi community are not happy about such misleading report because its away of adding fuel into the existing problem.
Nimule is a border point known by our governor and by the whole country. Why do those of Brigadier JJ Okot and Commissioner of Magwi County want to take the Customs all the way to Amee? Does it make any sense?
He accused the Mass Media (reporters) for exaggeration but that is wrong. It is him who made the whole incident too complicated in the office of the president by reporting the opposite.
Soldiers ordered by Brigadier JJ Okot and Commissioner went physical and they killed two men on spot, an old woman badly wounded now surviving in Nimule Hospital and a boy was shot in the leg. But our governor called all these not intended: what is wrong with him?
It's a sin to cover blood of people once it poured and it is good to point out what went wrong even if done by government officials. If our governor made the president to believe in him, we Acholi and Madi tribes are venerable to hate ourselves for action carried on purpose by government officers. I know what Brigadier JJ Okot and Commissioner of Magwi County did to Madi people are wrong.
Article posted by our elders in Juba entitled 'Madi Campaign of Misinformation and Misplaced Anger against the Acholi' is the same as following the footsteps of EES governor, brigadier JJ Okot and commissioner. It does not depict practical part of what exactly happened on that day.
They also criticized the Mass media like EES governor did before the president. Seeing all these are happening, to be honest I am afraid. Am an Acholi and I know we have relatives who established themselves among the Madi people long time ago. Although we have Acholi and Madi tribe, we lived side by side for so long. That is why we are coming divided as Acholi due to distorted misinformation.
As EES governor failed to summit the right information to the president, the problem is still a life. Therefore, we are few members from Acholi community who have seen through many eyes that what had happened in Moli was wrong.
Our elders in Juba think the incident occurred in Ame which belonged to Acholi Boma. But that was wrong as well. Those Madi were killed in Moli not even in the forest, but at their own home. The soldiers went there physical and shot them. The one in Pageri happened near the police station.
A man from our community was jailed in Pageri Police Station for smuggling fire arms which he claimed he was asked to take to Payikwara. The commissioner went there physical and ordered his Askaris to shoot and he got the man out of jail without jail. I know the right information about these.
Although an Acholi I believe we are divided in this particular incident. I and others are standing against the report of the governor about the recent incident in Moli and Pageri, better for the president to fetch for more information, because if these issues remain unsolved, some of us will continue to live in fear.
How long will the governor continue to cover such incident by calling it unintentional?
In conclusion, it's not the Mass Media to blame, if anything it is the EES governor to blame because he practically covered up Brigadier JJ Okot and the Commissioner for their actions against Madi as a tribe. We don’t want to be victims of such crisis.
If there are government journalists, let them go to Moli and Pageri to get the right information. EES governor report is wrong and misleading.
Joseph Oyet; Torit- South Sudan; [email protected]
Comments are closed.