Stay clear of where the president happens to be passing! With all due respect to president Salva Kiir, it is now plainly evident that he has become a liability to me personally. This is not because of something he himself has done, but often due to the actions of his security agents and the presidential guards who seem to think that securing the president means abusing citizens in the process. Readers and witnesses will recall the horrendous attack that happened to me on December 31st 2011 at Wau airport, which I wrote about, to the shock and horror of everyone. Nothing was ever done about that incident by the way, and the criminals who almost blinded me are still members of our national defense force. Their actions have no consequences, and we think we have an institution! Numerous other instances have occurred since, in which I was either stopped and detained for up to an hour at times or verbally abused for things like “don’t you see the president passing by, why are you standing here?” On every single one of these instances, I have never failed to show my government identification card, speak with respect and politeness commensurate with my personality and respect for my status as a public servant. I have never failed to show my respect for the uniform that our security forces wear, for I consider that as an emblem for my country. My behavior, apart from being what my personality demands, as I naturally abhor violent confrontations, has been in hope that the security will see that I am a senior government employee, appointed by the very president they think they love more than any other citizen does, and that I present no harm. It is ok to be asked by any security agent if there is reason for them to suspect a citizen for anything unbecoming. But what happened to the polite manners with which a security person can start a conversation with a suspect? Unless the person proves dangerous or the security force has any reason to believe that this person is a threat to them or to public security, such a conversation can be as simple as asking the person to identify himself/herself, no beating involved and verbal abuse unnecessary. But lest someone thinks I am deliberately putting myself in harm’s way, note that it happens to me when I just happen to be going about my own business, not knowing and having not heard about the president’s presence in the area. Many instances have really made me think that it is the soldiers themselves who seem to provoke everyone they encounter. For example, those of you who live in Juba will know that the slum area behind the president’s residence is inhabited by a large number of soldiers, some of them with their families, as part of the whole neighborhood, which makes it hard for any new person in the area to know where the military area and the civilian area separates. One fated morning, I jogged from my residence and looped around that area, accidentally ending up in that neighborhood, right across the road from the force that guards the fence to the president’s residence. When I realized that I had come up against a dead end, I turned around and started jogging away from that point. Well, not so fast!! That was when a heavily armed duo shouted at me to stop and I did. Believe it or not, despite the obvious, a man in his shorts and tank top, just lost on a morning jog, I was stopped and verbally abused for nearly an hour by soldiers wanting to know what I was doing in the area, even though there were so many other civilians walking by. I was eventually let go, all my high spirits of a wonderful day ahead bullied out of me. I left, a shaken man, with memories of the Wau incident brought to life again, to my horror. I thought they were going to do same thing to me again. Even though I used to work on Saturdays, on that occasion, I went home and stayed home, in shock and frustrated. The last incident was on Saturday morning of July 6th, when I had left my residence, went to a dry cleaner and innocently parked on the main road and entered the laundry facility. I had no idea the president was also leaving his house at that moment and that he would be passing on the road where I happened to have parked. When I exited and walked towards my (government) car, two security officers rushed toward me, shouting questions I did not understand right away, as I was confused as to why these guys were talking to me like that. Again, I was interrogated, my identification card taken away to an officer around the corner, and I had to wait indefinitely. All this makes me really wonder about my own personal future welfare in this country, if these experiences continue to occur to me.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 12:41:49 +0000
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