South Sudan opposition politician missing for a week

The whereabouts of politician Peter Mayen Majongdit are unknown since last week when unidentified security agents took him away from his residence in Juba.

The whereabouts of politician Peter Mayen Majongdit are unknown since last week when unidentified security agents took him away from his residence in Juba.

Majongdit is the head of the People’s Liberal Party, which was established about two months ago. He hails from Warrap State in the Bahr al Ghazal region.

According to Mijok Lang Mijak, the party’s top youth leader, Majongdit was arrested soon after publication of an article in Juba Monitor in which he criticized the government for borrowing huge amounts of money from Qatar.

He was taken from his home on 1 April at about 11:00 p.m., Mijok said. Since then the government has brought no charges against him nor notified the party of his whereabouts.

“I cannot know where he is,” Mijok told Radio Tamazuj.

Asked whether the party had involved a lawyer in the case he responded, “When you’re dealing with something called kidnapping or disappearance there is no way for a legal [counsel] to come in.”

He called for the immediate release of Majongdit saying he was not a rebel but was only “talking” and never took up arms against the government.

Mijok described the PLP as a new party whose members nonetheless had contributed to the liberation of South Sudan. “All our families are those who liberated this country and we are not against anybody but we want freedom of speech and there is nobody to be kidnapped or something.”