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HRW calls for investigate ‘disreputable’ S. Sudan national security service for human rights violations

December 15, 2020

By Deng Machol
[caption id="attachment_81241" align="alignnone" width="892"] South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, center, and newly appointed army chief of staff Lt. Gen. James Ajongo Mawut, right, attend a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the capital Juba, South Sudan Thursday, May 18, 2017. South Sudan's civil war has killed tens of thousands and driven out more than 1.5 million people in the past three years, creating the world's largest refugee crisis. (AP Photo/Bullen Chol)[/caption]
Juba – South Sudanese authorities have failed to stem or investigate the appalling abuses by the country’s National Security Service (NSS), Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Monday, Dec 14, 2020.   Human Rights Watch is calling for a credible and thorough investigation into the “unlawful” activities of the National Security Service in South Sudan, accusing it of gross human rights violations.   Since the outbreak of the civil war in December 2013, the security service has carried out arbitrary and abusive detentions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and illegal surveillance, with little to no accountability or justice for victims. South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) was established in 2011, after the country gained independence.   The 2011 Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, mandates the NSS to collect information, conduct analysis, and advise relevant authorities. But since its establishment, the NSS has gone much further than merely collecting information. Within months of its establishment, till today, its agents were arresting and imprisoning journalists, government critics and others, and conducting physical and telephonic surveillance.   However, today, it has become one of the government’s most important tools of repression.   In the 78- page report, “‘What Crime Was I Paying for?’ Abuses by South Sudan’s National Security Service” looks in depth at the patterns of abuse by the National Security Service between 2014 and 2020, and at the atmosphere of fear it creates.   Human Rights Watch research identified the obstacles to justice for these abuses, including denying due process for detainees, the lack of any meaningful judicial or legislative oversight of the agency, legal immunity for NSS agents, and ultimately a lack of political will to address these widespread practices.   These abuses have left victims with long-term physical and mental health conditions.   “All that is needed is political will to rein in South Sudan’s notorious security service and ensure redress for years of abuses,” said Carine Kaneza Nantulya, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, the agency remains the government’s preferred tool of repression, promoting a culture of impunity and leaving victims and their families with little recourse for justice.”   Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 85 people, including former NSS detainees, family members of detainees, activists, policy analysts, civil servants, former military, security, and intelligence personnel, family members of victims of NSS abuses, representatives of domestic and international nongovernmental organizations, diplomats, and United Nations officials.   The report also draws on research published by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, South Sudan’s Human Rights Commission, the UN Mission in South Sudan, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan, and other international and domestic NGOs.   This report documents serious human rights violations by the NSS in South Sudan, including torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, forced returns and violations of privacy rights. The report describes obstacles to accountability for these abuses, including denial of due process for detainees, the lack of any meaningful judicial or legislative oversight of the agency and legal immunities for NSS agents.   With the outbreak of civil war in December 2013 and a resurgence of fighting in July 2016, the NSS engaged in extensive crackdowns targeting people who are deemed to be anti-government. They also used ethnicity to profile targets with the assumption that people from certain ethnicity belong to armed or political opposition groups.   It has targeted government critics, suspected opponents and rebels, aid workers, human rights defenders, businessmen, journalists and students, and routinely used violence and intimidation, including threats, beatings, and surveillance against them. Its role also expanded from intelligence gathering to include law enforcement functions and combat operations.   The NSS has three main facilities in Juba that are considered de facto, “official” Blue House, Riverside, and Hai Jalaba – but also uses “unauthorized” places such as residential homes as detention sites. None of these places of detention are legally recognized.   The opacity surrounding the detentions makes it very hard to know how many people are currently under NSS custody but as of late October, the NSS held at least 200 people at the Blue House, an intelligence official told Human Rights Watch.   In the report, the NSS officials have tortured and otherwise ill-treated detainees, including beatings, piercing them with needles, dripping melted hot plastic on them, hanging them upside down from a rope, electrical shocks, and rape. The agency detainees have included pregnant women, people with disabilities, and children.   Detainees are also denied access to lawyers and family. Most are never charged or brought before a court. Those interviewed said they were freed as arbitrarily as they were detained, including through presidential amnesties, via connections, or by paying bribes.   These prolonged detentions and the harsh conditions including beatings, solitary confinement, and inadequate food and water have both a physical and mental toll on detainees.   “I can still feel the needles on my skin,” said a 27-year-old former detainee who was tortured at the Riverside detention site with needles driven into his testicles. He was interviewed six months after his release.   The NSS has also detained people with disabilities, children, and pregnant and lactating women. Many were released without ever being interrogated, charged, or presented in court.   The country’s agency also conducted unlawful physical and telephone surveillance of some people interviewed before and after their release, prompting several to flee the country. It has also harassed and abducted South Sudanese in neighboring countries like Kenya and Uganda whom they deemed to oppose the government; this has created a climate of fear and suspicion among the diaspora in neighboring countries in effect stifling criticism of South Sudan’s government even outside the country.   These practices have thrived due to lack of adequate legislative controls and poor judicial and civilian oversight over the agency, Human Rights Watch said. The NSS Act grants the agency broad powers of arrest, detention, search, seizure, and surveillance. It does not include guarantees to prevent arbitrary detention and torture or other ill-treatment and provides for immunity for the agents. While it requires the NSS to bring detainees before a magistrate or judge within 24 hours of their detention, the NSS seldom, if ever, does, Human Rights Watch found.   Human Rights Watch calls on the government of South Sudan to end NSS’s de facto powers of detention and close all places of detention used by the NSS.   “They should immediately release all detainees in NSS custody or bring them before a court of law to be charged with a cognizable offense and either released on bail or remanded to the custody of South Sudan’s National Police Service in accordance with the law. They should ensure that all persons in NSS detention who are brought before a court enjoy their full due process rights, including the rights to a lawyer of their choice, to challenge the detention and charges, and, are guaranteed a fair trial,” said HRW.   In September 2019, President Salva Kiir issued an order creating a tribunal to try NSS officers for crimes against the state. But, there is no evidence that the tribunal or other accountability efforts have resulted in credible investigations and trials for serious rights abuses.   As part of the country’s 2018 Revitalized peace deal, to end its five-year civil war, the government agreed to reform the agency. However, proposed amendments presented to the Justice Ministry in June 2019 are minimal and fail to get to the heart of the abuses. While they would criminalize torture, they limit, but do not eliminate, the agency’s powers of arrest and detention.   The NSS would retain surveillance powers, without sufficient oversight, and retain overly broad authority to arrest people suspected of “crimes against the state.” These amendments are pending, awaiting the creation of a new parliament.   However, the HRW said the Revitalized Transitional National Legislature of South Sudan created under the peace agreement – once established – should urgently revise the law to impose genuine limits on the NSS role and powers. The government should order the closure of all unauthorized detention sites, release detainees, and introduce appropriate legal safeguards to prevent abuse of the agency’s surveillance powers.   “South Sudanese authorities need to reform the security service and ensure justice and compensation for victims,” Kaneza said, “This is a crucial step toward building a vibrant country whose future is rooted in the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights.”   South Sudanese authorities should conduct credible and thorough investigations into NSS violations, including the role of the national security minister and the agency’s top leadership in perpetuating abuses by the service, Human Rights Watch said.   South Sudan’s regional and international partners [Troika and AU) should press and publicly call on Juba’s government to end the abuse, reform the NSS, and ensure justice for NSS abuses.   Juba government is yet to respond to this allegedly human rights violation.  

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