South Sudan army denies assassination attempt on detained military officer
December 3, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudanese army (SPLA) has denied reports attributed to one of its senior military officers in detention who claimed to have survived attempt on his life, masterminded by a senior military leader from Bilpam general headquarters in Juba.
Many family members and relatives of the detained officer also told Sudan Tribune during series of interviews that they have never had the opportunity to visit the officer in detention and that Kuol and his inmates were held in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions without access to their families, legal assistances and medical care.
A wife of one of the military officers imprisoned with Kuol in a separate interview on Thursday told Sudan Tribune that she has even stopped attempts to visit her husband in the detention because she had never succeeded in accessing him since he was arrested.
“My children and I are worried, actually more worried because it is now more than 4 months without hearing about him since they arrested him in May,” she said.
Also relatives of Brigadier General Kuol expressed anxiety about the safety of the detained officer due to the alleged plan to assassinate him.
Major General Akec Adim, head of the SPLA Military Police who is the overall commander and administrative controller and supervisor of the military detention facility in Juba, however denied that some of the military officers under arrest have been mistreated and none of them survived assassination attempt.
“I am not aware of these allegations. I have no information,” General Adim briefly told Sudan Tribune on Thursday when contacted for confirmation.
Brigadier General James Kuol is one of an estimated 75 officers under detention for various charges, some of whom have spent more than three years without being informed of the causes for their arrest or taken to the military court for hearing. The officers are held at a military police facility located south of Juba University in the same area where the infamous ‘White House” is located.
The so-called white house was one of the detention places used by the Sudanese security as a torture and execution site during the 1983-2005 civil war of liberation struggle in which more than 2 million lives were lost and more than 4 million others left their homes in search of safety either as internally displaced persons or refugees in neigbouring countries.
Colonel Mawiir Nyok, Colonel Idris Khamis Allajabu, Colonel Matiok Reng, Major Markona Tito, Captain Casiano Apuro Asunta, Lieutenant Colonel Garang Jhong Akoon and Major Maker Nyok are among several other senior and junior officers who have been arrested by the military command leadership and kept under detention without trial.
The cause for their detention remains unclear. No official statement has been released to clarify the circumstances under which they were arrested.
(ST)