The United Nations has called on South Sudan’s National Security Service to cease arresting and detaining civilians as doing so breaks the country’s own laws.
In a human rights report released earlier this week, the UN said that police are the only law enforcement agency in South Sudan, but NSS, as well as SPLA, have been arresting citizens anyway with torture and inhumane treatment reported.
The UN descirbed a “longstanding and persistent pattern of illegal arrest and detention by NSS,” though the Transitional Constitution mandates NSS to “focus on information gathering, analysis and advice to the relevant authorities.”
NSS has operated “in a space above the law and with virtual impunity,” the UN said, laying out a litany of abuses committed by the agency.
NSS agents have held three UN staff members without charge, the UN said. Two of them, radio journalist George Livio and a security guard, have been in custody since August 2014. A third was taken in Torit in October that year and is held in a riverside detention site in Juba. None have been charged with any crime, appeared before a judge, or allowed family visits.
The UN said that on 11 June 2015, a truck carrying five NSS agents abducted a 28-year-old Darfuri trader in Juba, and the trader has not been seen since.
The same day, NSS officials arrested an Eritrean man in Aweil and beat him until he paid 10,000 SSP to someone who had a previous court case with the man, the UN alleged. The man’s wife eventually paid the money so he would be released.
Torture of detainees by NSS has been reported too, the UN said. In October 2014, a 20-year-old Ugandan was whipped with electric wires by security forces who arrested him for allegedly stealing a mobile phone. The man’s back was scarred by the incident.
That same month in Aweil, UN human rights investigators found detainees were injured when they had been beaten with sticks by security forces, while in January 2015 in Lakes state, a murder suspect was placed in solitary confinement and denied food, water, medical treatment, and family visits.
SPLA also breaks law by detaining suspects
The UN said the SPLA also took part in illegal detentions. The army is explicited prohibited by the Transitional Constitution from conducting law enforcement activities except in special circumstances.
The UN said that between August and October 2014, SPLA soldiers arrested individuals in Chukudum, Budi County, Eastern Equatoria, with several human rights abuses reported including the death in custody of a seminarian and headmaster of Helecit Primary School.
Two youths in Chukudum were also tortured by the same soldiers at the time, the UN was informed.
In another incident, SPLA arrested ex-Western Equatoria governor Joseph Bangasi Bakosoro. Bakosoro was eventually released, but has since been taken captive again by NSS, according to his family.