Street protest to be crushed, warns South Sudan police chief
Police officers delay to counter anti-government protest in Juba [Photo by Solomon]
By Denis Elamu
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) has dared protestors to take the streets today, vowing to violently crush them.
A group calling itself the People’s Coalition for Civil Action(PCCA) put the transitional unity government on notice, saying it will lead protests on August 30th over what it termed as leadership failure by the parties to the 2018 revitalized peace deal to usher in democracy and good governance, improve economic wellbeing of citizens.
Gen. Majak Akec, Inspector General of Police has warned members of the PCCA against going ahead to hold the protest in Juba.
“We have deployed enough forces, and whoever will come out tomorrow (Monday) to demonstrate will be considered a criminal and we will talk to them in a language they will understand in the field,” Majak told journalists in Juba on Sunday.
“Any trader who will close his shop tomorrow will be investigated because he or she might be fully aware or a partner to those calling for a demonstration against the government,” he added.
Majak warned troublemakers to desist from committing crimes or risk being dealt with in accordance with the law.
“Whoever that will kill, rob, or may attempt to rape women or girls during the strike is against the law and we will not allowyou to get away with such crimes you might have committed,” he said.
He assured Juba residents to go about their lawful duties without fear.
“We are hereby informing our citizens across the country not to close their shops tomorrow and everyone should go about their daily activities as usual,” he said.
“Illegal meetings whether political and other social gatherings in any hotel or residential areas tomorrow are not permitted unless with an official document approved by the security organs,” said Majak.
He disclosed that mobilizing citizens to go for protest or uprising is a crime.
“Those who are exactly manufacturing this misleading information have not made it official and it’s not permitted by the government,” said Majak.
However, PCCA has since called of the planned protest arguing that it was in the interest of averting national security crisis.
“We the undersigned leaders of the PCCA do hereby today the 29th of August 2021 announce publicly the cancelation and indefinite postponement of the national awakening day which we had initially programmed to take place on the 30th of August 2021,” said PCCA in a statement.
“The main reason we have decided to indefinitely postpone the important undertaking is the fact that other negative forces, on the instigation of the crooked regime have schemed to take advantage of that day to cause havoc and endanger the national security of the whole country,” it added.
PCCA warned of a ploy by these said negative forces to attack the South Sudan army (SSPDF) barracks, carry out ambushes along the highways on ethnic lines, in addition to targeted killings at night in the cities across the country.
The organizers of the protests also accuse the parties to the peace deal of failing to implement the deal on time that has caused public frustration.
South Sudan which descended into conflict in December 2013 is struggling to implement the fragile 2018 revitalized peace deal to end more than six years of conflict that caused economic ruin.
The conflict that pitied President Salva Kiir against his now First Vice President in the coalition government formed in February 2020 killed thousands and displaced over two million people both internally and externally.
