Rights group asks South Sudan to reform abusive security agency
Juba, South Susan (PANA) - Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that South Sudan's National Assembly should urgently enact reforms of the National Security Service (NSS) to end arbitrary detention and abuse of detainees.
The authorities should also ensure that the security agency releases all those arbitrarily detained in Juba, the capital, and elsewhere in the country and hold all those responsible for abuses to account, it said in a statement.
“South Sudan’s national security agency has for years carried out a full-blown assault on critics of the government and political opponents in brazen disregard for basic rights,” said Jehanne Henry, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “With the formation of a unity government, South Sudan’s leaders should now show they are serious about ending these abuses and holding those responsible to account.”
The statement noted that South Sudan’s government and opposition leaders are supposed to form a new unity government on 22 February, 2020, in accordance with the terms of the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement.
The National Assembly is to consider new legislation to revise structure, policies, and procedures of the security service among others in the coming days, before the new government is formed.
Human Rights Watch said lawmakers should prioritise revising the National Security Service Act (2015) to prohibit the agency from carrying out arrests and detaining people and ensure adequate and broad-based discussions on the reforms.
The authorities should also close all unauthorized detention sites and release or appropriately charge detainees and transfer them to police custody, Human Rights Watch said.
It said it has repeatedly called on the South Sudanese authorities to limit NSS powers to intelligence gathering, as envisioned by the Transitional Constitution of 2011, which mandates the agency to “focus on information gathering, analysis and to advise the relevant authorities”.
-0- PANA MA 19Feb2020
