From: Sudan Press
The South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy (SSHURSA) has announced the closure of all its offices in South Sudan and suspended operations until further notice.
In a press statement released to the media, the rights group cites government threats as the main reason behind its decision to close its offices and suspend functions.
“We decided to close down all our activities in South Sudan and suspend our operations on critical scenarios. First, I started receiving death threats and threats of arrests through phone calls and text messages from unknown persons and others who identified themselves with names I could not believe are genuine and I narrowly left South Sudan on 23 December 2013 for Uganda” Said Biel Boutros Biel, the Executive Director of SSHURSA now in exile.
Biel had received threatening text messages and phone calls before and he believes come from government agents.
“Surprisingly while in Kampala, I still continued to receive death threats thus I left Uganda and so once those threatening me failed to locate me, they started asking some members of civil society of my whereabouts. They realized that I was out of the country” Biel continued to explain.
“Secondly, when they couldn’t find me, they resorted to framing false accusations to some of my colleagues. Now they have stormed my house and looted everything including our car. So we realized that South Sudan is no longer a place we could work in, under the circumstances for it is not a secret that those giving us threats have evil intention to harm us as they did to our colleague Isaiah Abraham. We could not longer ignore them and we decided to go to exile” Biel added.
Human rights defenders, journalists, and government’s critics have been living in fear in South Sudan because the government sees them as threat to its existence.
The group also calls on the United Nations (UN) and African Human rights Commissions to conduct to impartial investigations on the ongoing killings of civilians in Juba and other parts of the country. The agency wants the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to refer ethnic killings to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“The murder of the civilians and non-combatants in Juba or elsewhere in ongoing conflict in South Sudan fits before the ICC because it constitutes international Crimes, a clear violation of International humanitarian Law under Geneva Convention as domesticated in 2012 by South Sudan and also a contravention of the ICC Act”, SSHURSA conclusively observes.
South Sudan Army (SPLA) and government’s agents have been widely accuse of unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, illegal detainment, beatings, intimidation, and many other human rights violations.
Bellow is the full text of SSHURSA’s statement:
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SSHURSA Press Release: For immediate release, January 22, 2014
SSHURSA CLOSES DOWN OPERATIONS IN SOUTH SUDAN AS ITS STAFF MEMBERS GO TO EXILE FOR THEIR LIVES
The South Sudan Human Rights Society For Advocacy (SSHURSA) decided to close down all its offices and suspends operations in South Sudan until further notice. This came as a result of threats hence most of the staff members have fled to exile for their lives. SSHURSA strongly believes that such threats are from the security circles of the government of South Sudan.
“We decided to close down all our activities in South Sudan and suspend our operations on critical scenarios. First, I started receiving death threats and threats of arrests through phone calls and text messages from unknown persons and others who identified themselves with names I could not believe are genuine and I narrowly left South Sudan on 23 December 2013 for Uganda” Said Biel Boutros Biel, the Executive Director of SSHURSA now in exile.
“Surprisingly while in Kampala, I still continued to receive death threats thus I left Uganda and so once those threatening me failed to locate me, they started asking some members of civil society of my whereabouts. They realized that I was out of the country” Biel continued to explain. “Secondly, when they couldn’t find me, they resorted to framing false accusations to some of my colleagues. Now they have stormed my house and looted everything including our car. So we realized that South Sudan is no longer a place we could work in, under the circumstances for it is not a secret that those giving us threats have evil intention to harm us as they did to our colleague Isaiah Abraham. We could not longer ignore them and we decided to go to exile” Biel added.
Though SSHURSA staff shall be absent within South Sudan, however, its leadership from afar, will continue monitoring the violations of human rights in South Sudan and will continue to expose the human rights violations the country is undergoing.
Calls for Action: SSHURSA calls on UN and African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to conduct impartial investigations on the ongoing killings of civilians in Juba and other parts of the country. It also calls on UN Security Council to refer South Sudan’s killings on ethnic ground as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court (ICC). “The murder of the civilians and non-combatants in Juba or elsewhere in ongoing conflict in South Sudan fits before the ICC because it constitutes international Crimes, a clear violation of International humanitarian Law under Geneva Convention as domesticated in 2012 by South Sudan and also a contravention of the ICC Act”. SSHURSA conclusively observes.
For more information about SSHURSA or this press release, contact us on: E-mail: sshursa2007@gmail.com
ABOUT SSHURSA:South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy (SSHURSA) is an incorporated non political and non profit making Human Rights organization founded in June 2007 by South Sudanese Lawyers and Law Students at Makerere Law Development Centre (LDC), Kampala-Uganda. In 2009, it became operational in South Sudan with its head office in capital city Juba and co-ordination offices in the states. It membership composes of individuals and organizations who believe in its human rights protection mandate. Itsvision is for a democratic and human rights abiding South Sudan and with its mission to monitor, document and publish human rights status in South Sudan and also train general public on Constitution, the importance of human rights, fundamental freedoms of an individual, Rule of Law, democracy, Transitional Justice and International Humanitarian Law , all geared towards creating a more responsible, justice and good governance oriented South Sudan. SSHURSA pays special focus on the rights of children, women and other vulnerable groups.It also keeps close attention to the strict observance of the supreme law, The Constitution.
Motto: “YOUR RIGHTS; YOUR DIGNITY”
For more information, contact us on:
E-mail: sshursa2007@gmail.com / info@sshursa.org
Website: www:sshursa.org
Tel: +211955300382/+211921114362;
Juba, Republic of South Sudan