Hon. Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, the First Deputy Speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) and the Deputy Chairman for Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has said the SPLM Party is involved in dubious machinations to allow the National Security Service (NSS) to retain powers to arrest, detain and try citizens, explaining that this has led to an impasse in passing the NSS Amendment Bill which is before parliament.
In this second and last part of an exclusive interview with Radio Tamazuj, Oyet also talks about the lack of political space and freedoms in the country, the restrictions movements of First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, and the aspects of the implementation of the peace agreement that are lagging among others.
Below are edited excerpts:
Q: There have been a lot of complaints from your SPLM-IO members saying there is no political space in South Sudan especially after your party’s paraphernalia were seized by the Ayod County commissioner in Jonglei State. What is your reaction to this?
A: It is true that this is not an isolated case in Ayod County. We have a general situation of lack of political space and lack of civil liberties. It is not affecting only the SPLM-IO and other political parties but also the ordinary citizens who are not free to exercise their basic human rights regarding political participation in government or regarding freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly. This is happening throughout the country and we see situations where party materials are confiscated at the border in Nimule. In Juba, the printing companies that are in the market are being intimated as well by the elements of security organs who order them not to print materials belonging to the SPLM-IO.
These are matters to do with the lack of political space. You also remember that in the three administrative areas, we are not allowed to participate. Up to now, we are not in the government in these areas and our members are not free even to hold meetings and assemblies in those areas. Even movement alone in those areas for our members is very risky. We are now asking, under such circumstances, how do we go for free, fair, and credible elections? Is the country prepared for elections? With this state of affairs, we see elections as being hijacked by the ruling SPLM party and they are preparing to rig the elections. They are preparing to sweep the peace agreement under the carpet and then they only work with the elections and this will be an abrogation of the peace agreement.
Q: There has been public anxiety and concern about the National Security Service Act (Amendment) Bill which has taken too long to be passed. What is happening?
A: This is a machination by the SPLM Party in government to retain the two sections that allocate powers to the National Security Service (NSS) to hush, intimidate, arrest, detain, and try citizens in their own courts and even sentence them to death. This is what has been going on at the NSS as a result of these two sections in the NSS law.
They are now running huge detention centers on their premises at the Blue House and at the riverside and yet by law, they are not supposed to do so. By law, it is the police who are supposed to arrest any errant citizen using a warrant. Any suspect can be arrested by the police. The NSS is now taking over the work of the police yet this is a specialized duty.
The role of the NSS is only to gather and analyze information and then to offer objective advice to relevant government authorities. This is not the case now and they have gone beyond this mandate and arrest, detain, and try citizens in their facilities unconstitutionally. Article 159 of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011 specifies the scope of the mandate of the NSS which according to us they have overstepped. The amendment bill in parliament is now being manipulated by the members of the ruling SPLM Party who are getting directives from outside the parliament. They are getting directives from the institutions of the National Security Service and also from their party to retain the two sections which give NSS powers to arrest among others and we continue to reject and object to this kind of machinations.
Q: Hon. Oyet, your party leader Dr Riak has never left South Sudan since he stepped in Juba in 2018. Is he not allowed to travel?
A: Well, other people call it house arrest, detention, or an open arrest. When we contact IGAD and other partners, they say none of them has confined our Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA-IO and that he is free. We have an IGAD communique and resolutions to that effect. The chairman, in 2018, moved to Juba and also moved the headquarters of the SPLM-IO to Juba so that the implementation of the peace agreement could go forward. While in Juba, and to our dismay, whenever he wants to travel, he is not given the go-ahead. There were invitations for him to travel to Egypt, Ivory Coast, the United States, and even within the country to go and open workshops or preside over workshops in Upper Nile State and Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, and all these were objected to by the of Office of the President. So, we now believe that our Chairman Dr. Riek Machar is not allowed to move freely.
This is the position that we are holding now that the chairman is not free to move because whenever he wants to move, it is not being allowed and this is an infringement on his political rights as a person. As an individual for instance, he is supposed to be allowed to travel around the country because freedom of movement is a basic right. He should also be allowed to travel outside the country. He now has to get treatment from within the country, which we encourage and advise our members to do, but in case there is any referral by any doctor in Juba that he should be treated outside the country, he is not allowed to go. So, what will happen to his health and life?
That means that his life at this point is also in danger. The issue of not allowing our chairman to travel and the restrictions on his political space rests with the SPLM Party and the security apparatus that is manning law and order in the country.
Q: Parliament is going on recces till next year in February yet there is a lot of outstanding business to be conducted and vital bills to be passed into law as the elections approach. How are you going to make up for the lost time?
A: As I told you, there is a lack of political will and a lack of preparations for elections. What we are seeing are just political gimmicks and nothing else. Parliament operates based on the conduct of business which stipulates that we go for a three-month recess unless otherwise decided by the president to come back early next year.
Q: Can you authoritatively say that the arms of government are working independently but harmoniously?
A: Regarding the separation of powers between the executive, legislature, and judiciary, we have challenges in the Republic of South Sudan. You remember the Chief Justice attending the SPLM Party political rallies in Wau and he was also seen in similar gatherings in Warrap State and other areas. So, this compromised the independence and integrity of the judiciary itself. The judiciary we know in the Republic of South Sudan is not independent if the Chief Justice is a member of the SPLM Party.
Citizens have to have trust and hope in the judiciary because this is a critical element related to the elections. If there are election disputes, we are supposed to go to court and when you to court, you find a member of the SPLM Party presiding over a court which should be independent from any influence.
In parliament, we had scenarios where our SPLM-IO members have seriously been intimidated by security agents and members of the SPLM Party. One of the examples is the NSS law which has now been in the House for over a year since it was presented. They are manipulating it so that either it is not passed or so that the NSS retains powers to arrest detain and seize property.
The chairperson of the committee on security and public order is a senior member of the SPLM Party which is in government and he adopted the report retraining the two sections, sections 54 and 55 which gives the NSS powers to arrest and detain among others. This made other members of the specialized committee very disappointed and angry and as a result, they refused to sign the report for it to be tabled in the house. So, that is the stalemate that is there with NSS law.
Also, during the budget reading, we had very good budget analyses in the first and second reading and parliament was acting independently through the specialized committee and different clusters. When it reached the point of critical decision-making regarding allocations and cutting some budget funds allocated to other spending agencies, there was interference. First, the minister was removed in the middle of the budget preparations and a new one was appointed, something which was against the law. And then the new minister who came initially knew nothing about the budget and he was instructed to go and overhaul the budget which was already in parliament. As a result, the salary increment was dropped. We had agreed that there would be a 600 percent salary raise and this was dropped in favor of the 400 percent increment at the third reading. This is when there was critical interference from outside parliament and this put the integrity of the House and its independence to question.
Q: Lately, we have seen the arbitrary arrests of journalists, censoring, and the shutting down of a newspaper. As a senior member of the SPLM-IO, what do you have to say about the infringement on media freedoms in the country?
A: As a party, we do not agree to harassment and intimidation of journalists and, sadly, journalists, and reporters are being harassed in the Republic of South Sudan. There is a saying that do not kill the messenger. Journalists are messengers, those who carry news, whether good news or bad breaking news like disasters because it informs the world to prepare for intervention. We do not expect journalists to be intimidated or harassed and that is our fundamental doctrine. Freedom of the press is also enshrined in the Bill of Rights. The right to access to information is also in our constitution and we expect journalists and the media to operate freely within the law for the benefit of the people of South Sudan so that they can bring out credible information.
Members of academia are free to research and publish their findings because this is what informs development.
Whoever is intimating the media and members of academia is acting outside the law.
Q: What is your last message to the people of South Sudan?
A: SPLM-IO remains committed to the revitalized peace agreement and we call upon and urge other parties, particularly the ruling Party, not to substitute the peace agreement with elections because that will be an abrogation of the agreement. We are also in the last year of the Transitional Period and the last part of the Roadmap and we expect the parties to expedite the implementation peace agreement so that next year 2024 will see us implement critical pending tasks.
We also call upon the minister of finance to avail a supplementary budget as soon as possible so that we can allocate budgets and resources to the National Election Commission, Constitution Review Commission, the Political Parties Council, for the census, and other critical institutions of government. We also need to allocate resources for security arrangements, including the disarmament of the civilian population, so that we can go for election in a free and fair environment so that elections are democratic and credible.