S. Sudan restricts opposition leader’s movements
December 22, 2014 (JUBA) – South Suda government has restricted movement of Lam Akol, the country’s main opposition leader amid concerns from advocacy groups .
“Our chairman could not travel outside the country thrice. He was blocked from travelling out to Addis Ababa in September and again in October when he wanted to attend a function in which he was invited to go and provide a key note lecture in Khartoum, Sudan. He was also not allowed to go to Nairobi, Kenya,” Biel said Monday.
“These are unconstitutional behaviours and a clear demonstration that the government operates outside the legal system, which is unacceptable,” he added.
Skye wheeler, a research for Human Right Watch covering South Sudan, said action of the government was an infringement on individual rights if indeed a ban was imposed.
“It’s an infringement on his basic right to freedom of movement to have seized his passport, without any formal charges laid against him,” she said in a statement.
“This action appears to have been purely politically motivated,” she added.
Meanwhile, Akol said there was no basis for restricting his movement and describing such actions as a violation of the constitution .
“No formal charges were laid against me, hence, the action was politically motivated which, no doubt, infringes on my basic right of freedom of movement,” he said in a statement.
Akol further said he was prevented from traveling out of the country by immigration officers acting on the directives of the cabinet affairs ministry in September.
“I was prevented from travelling to Addis Ababa by an Immigration officer at Juba airport on the 13th of September 2014, who said clearly that he was acting on the orders of the Minister of Cabinet Affairs. I was leading the delegation of the political parties to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, for the 6th round of the IGAD led Peace Talks on the invitation of the mediators. To ascertain that the Minister was not acting on his own, the political parties wrote on the 15th of September a letter to the President of the Republic seeking clarification on the matter. The letter went unanswered”, Akol explained.
“I wrote another letter to the immigration department on 20 October requesting permission for me to travel outside the country. Permission was not granted. Prevention of any citizen from travelling out of the country is a violation of Article 27 (2) of the Constitution of the country, which stipulates that: ‘Every citizen shall have the right to leave and or return to South Sudan,’” he added.
However, presidential spokesperson, Ateny Wek Ateny, in a separate interview said the decision to prevent Akol to from traveling outside the country in September was taken in accordance with the resolution of the political parties’ decision to disown him.
“That decision was taken for the interest of the nation. It was in response to the resolution of the political parties who decided he was no longer their leader in the talks. They brought new people,” said Ateny.
“It was not the decision of the government,” he added.
(ST)