SSHURSA CONDEMNS ABDUCTION OF SAMUEL DONG AND CALLS ON KENYAN GOVERNMENT TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS, URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO STOP DEPORTATION
Press Release: for immediate release; 25 January 2017
January 25, 2017 (SSNA) — The South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy(SSHURSA) condemns in strongest terms possible the abduction of the Nairobi-based South Sudanese human rights lawyer Samuel Dong Luak. He was disappeared on 23 January 2017 in Nairobi, Kenya. Dong is now believed being held by the Kenyan security personnel. Aggrey Idris, a senior South Sudanese armed Opposition member has also been abducted and believed to be either with Samuel Dong or held separately in Kenya. Sources in Nairobi indicated that South Sudan’s security personnel are behind the abduction as they are conniving Kenyan security agents to deport to South Sudan Samuel Dong and Aggrey Idris.
Samuel Dong had been a human rights Advocate in South Sudan since 1990’s. He fled to exile in August 2013 when the South Sudanese security agents threatened his life for being a lead defence lawyer of former Secretary-General of South Sudanese ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement(SPLM)); Pagan Amum, who instituted a case against the SPLM and its leader President Salva Kiir, for dismissing him and restricted his constitutional right to free movement. Samuel Dong, despite being in exile since 2013, continues to champion defense of human rights and rule of law and has always exposed any abuses by the South Sudanese authorities. Abducting him and Aggrey Idris, is a violation of their right to free speech and expression. SSHURSA condemns the behavior of Kenyan security in conniving with South Sudanese security to abuse the rights of Samuel Dong and Aggrey Idris.
Kenya is a democratic country and in adherence to its international human rights obligations, it must not partake in the abuses of human rights and rule of law against which Samuel Dong has been in the forefront exposing. SSHURSA calls on Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his government to intervene to prevent deportation and the two men should be released immediately. President Kenyatta should take drastic measures against his security agents who are involved in conniving with the South Sudanese security machinery to use Kenya as a ground to extend human rights abuses.
SSHURSA urges the international community especially United Nations and Troika countries (United States, Norway and United Kingdom) to boldly face Kenyan government to stop possible deportation of Samuel Dong and Aggrey Idris, previous and subsequent abuses of the rights of South Sudanese in exile in Kenya. SSHURSA further calls upon Kenya’s human rights institutions and personnel to urge their government not to condone Kenyan soil being used as an extensional city for South Sudanese security agents to abuse human rights and rule of law at will as they do in South Sudan.
SSHURSA is a nongovernmental and nonpolitical human rights organisation founded on 5th June 2007. Its head office is in capital Juba and its coordination offices in other states of South Sudan. Its vision; a democratic, peaceful, human rights and rule of law abiding South Sudan. It areas of focus are in human rights education and monitoring, constitution, rule of law, transitional justice and peacebuilding among others. For more information on this press release or about SSHURSA, Contact us through E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: +211955912237 or visit our website at: www.sshursa.org.