A Scapegoat Law Hangs a Woman in South Sudan!
Malith Alier Deng, South Sudanese Australian Political Analyst and Cultural Critics
By Malith Alier, Kalgoorlie, Australia
Friday, September 24, 2021 (PW) — Which laws govern South Sudanese Society, are they 21st or 12th Century laws? This question might seem naive to many, but 12th Century laws are killing people in the world’s newest republic.
Eye radio reported that a week or so ago, a woman killed herself in a military prison in Yirol West. The reason for the unfortunate demise of the honorable woman was because of a poorly thought practice from the colonial era but now regarded as law in South Sudan.
I called her honorable because she did an “honorable thing” in this country by ending her life because of the terrible injustice unwittingly meted out on her by a law enforcement agency.
A thousand others like her suffer in silence in S. Sudan because of the archaic and often unjustified practice of arresting relatives of suspected criminals. A mother is arrested here because her son or daughter has killed somebody else.
A father was detained because his son eloped with a daughter of so and so. A brother was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment because his younger brother killed his friend and escaped to another country. This is a law of a jungle!
This law of arresting, detaining, abducting, or even killing relatives for crimes they were not part of is no law.
Proper law is divided into criminal and civil. An example of criminal crime includes a wanton killing of another human being. Civil law deals with things like an elopement.
A normal and proper law identifies the one who exactly committed a crime at hand. This person is often regarded as innocent until proven guilty by way of prosecution. A due process must be followed in a court of law to come to the conclusion of guilt or innocence.
A person who abetted or was an accessory to the crime may be prosecuted along with the criminal. The criminal and the accomplice are the only people who can be joined in a string of crimes, nothing more nothing less.
The sad practice of arbitrarily joining relatives in a crime where they are not accomplices is a pity on law enforcement agencies. It is simply making relatives of suspected criminal scapegoats! This is a dereliction of duty by the police. They should know that this arbitrary practice flies in the face of justice and it is totally absurd.
The law of S. Sudan says that the arrested person should not be detained for more than 48 hours. 48 hours, right? What if the suspected criminal is at large but his father/mother/brother/sister/friend/ grandfather was detained, will they be subject to this rule?
I doubt if the pitiful practice of detaining persons because of their blood relationship to the suspected criminal is enshrined in the law of S. Sudan. If it is, then that law is not worth the paper it is written on. That law may belong to the 12th Century and is not to be confused with the 21st Century and going forward.
Last but not least, the practice of joining relatives of would-be criminals in part, fuels revenge killing in many parts of the country. In the case of the deceased woman and in case the government does not arrest her, the person or relatives of the person who was offended may take the law unto their own hand and exact an act of revenge on her.
Therefore, the practice of arbitrarily substituting relatives in crimes they had no knowledge of encourages revenge killing in the country.
Lawyers of South Sudan must come and challenge this archaic and outdated 12th Century thinking.
The author, Malith Alier, is a concerned South Sudanese Australian public intellectual and political commentator who can be reached via his email address: alierjokdeng@gmail.com
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