Two S.Sudan generals in jail for over three months without trial

JUBA (HAN) May 11.2016. Public Diplomacy & Regional Security News.  Two senior generals from South Sudan army (SPLA) now in detention have spent three and half months without trial, Sudan Tribune has learned.

The duo are General Buay Rolyang, formerly the special division one commander of Melut oil fields and General Joseph Manyuat Manyzol, an operation commander for division four in the country’s oil-rich Unity state.

The two were arrested on 19 February allegedly on orders of the military chief of staff, General Paul Malong Awan, but what prompted their arrest and detention is still unknown.

A senior member of the ruling Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), told Sudan Tribunethe two generals were arrested over grievances with Governor, Joseph Nguen Monytuil and fourth division commander , Maj. Gen.Thaiyeb Gatluak.

The two officials are being implicated for being in close contact with former rebel official in Unity state, and the decision by Gen. Buay for ordering that all cattle looted by militias be return to rightful owners, said the official, who asked not to be identified due to sensitivity of the matter.

African Youth Action Network (AYAN), a local-based organization in Unity state’s Mayom county, has called for unconditional release of two generals and a former governor.

AYAN’s executive director, Malual Bol Kiir, has urged the SPLA chief of general staff to take the two generals and the former governor of Western Bhar-el-Gazal state to court.

“We calls upon the CoGs [Chief of General Staff] at the SPLA Headquarters to present the detained general and former governor in an independent military tribunal or court so that they are charged with recognizable offences compatible to the SPLA laws and not repugnant to the international law and standard or immediately release them,” said Bol in a statement Sudan Tribune obtained.

He said the detention of three officials at the SPLA headquarter in Bilpam, a suburb north of the capital, Juba was not in line with South Sudan’s Transitional Constitution.

“Detaining a person without charge is inconsistent to the principle of South Sudan transitional constitution, which states that a person cannot be imprisoned for more than 24 hours without being presented in an independent court or tribunal,” he added.

AYAN has been working for reconciliation among youth, through development, respect of human rights and for youth to be agents of positive change and peace builders in society.