The head of the newly established People’s Liberal Party has been released by security personnel after more than a week in detention at an unidentified location in the capital city Juba.
Peter Mayen Majongdit told Radio Tamazuj today that he was released last night after being held seven days without being charged with any crime. He claimed he was blindfolded the whole time.
“They closed my eyes and they put me somewhere very nasty really. My eyes have been closed so I have been blind for the last seven days.”
Majongdit says he does not think he was held at an official government premises. During that time he was guarded by men who spoke either Dinka or Juba Arabic. Upon his release, they drove him back to the place where they had abducted him and left him there, he said.
The politician said he was threatened to stop advocating for accountability for what happened in mid-December 2013. “They warned me not to talk about the issue of accountability and all the officials who committed crimes on the 15th December,” he said.
The Liberal Party leader said he had been talking about this issue via the media before his arrest including in an interview with Bakhita Radio. He also spoke out about corruption.
He explained that his party’s position on transitional justice is that there cannot be reconciliation without truth. “We are saying that only to reconcile these peoples together – just bringing these people together – is not enough because there are also wounds in people’s hearts.”
“If we talk about reconciliation without truth then we will only have a temporary peace,” he said.
Majongdit said he was threatened with death and also warned not to speak with the media. Asked why he thought he had been released he responded that he was told there was an outcry about his arrest and external pressure and that had helped lead to his release.
Asked whether he thought there was any connection between his arrest in Juba and recently reported inter-clan tensions in his native Warrap State, he did not deny this.
He said that he was aware that youths of his clan Kuach Ayok of Gogrial West had threatened youth of the Awan Chan Nyal clan of President Salva Kiir.
“Maybe they saw it was very hard to manage,” he said of those who had ordered his arrest.
Meanwhile, Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek said at a press conference today that government security forces were not involved in the detention of the opposition politician Peter Mayen Majongdit.
“I have no idea as to the missing gentlemen Mayen Majongdit but what I wanted to tell you if he was missing; he is the very close relative to chief administrator in the Office of the President, his father and the father of the chief administrator are brothers from same mother and same father,” he disclosed.
In further remarks, however, he allowed for the possibility that Majongdit might have been accidentally detained somewhere: “It might have been procedural thing if he might have been detained somewhere and soon as we get the information we will update you. But it should not be called ‘missing’ because the relative didn’t say yes he is missing.”
Related:
South Sudan opposition politician missing for a week (8 April)