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It is more than a week since the former mayor of Juba City Council, Kalisto Lado, was reportedly arrested from his house and forcefully driven off under heavy security to an unknown destination yet to be revealed.
Last week, The City Review published a feature story detailing his last moments before the event that can be best described as an abduction. It was an abduction because according to the narration of Anne Grace Juan, Mr Kalisto’s wife, the conversation between her husband and the individuals did not involve their identification despite the fact that some of them were dressed up in military fatigues. It was all about “get off your car and enter here.” His sluggishness or apparent resistance for fear of the unknown was meant by brute force. He had to cooperate for fear of his life.
A civilized arrest requires that the officer making an arrest identifies themselves and tells the suspect that they are under arrest because of committing crimes A, B, C, D. Ordering someone or bundling them to vehicles with kicks and blows under gunpoint intimidation amounts to torture that violates their rights—no matter the crimes they are suspected of committing.
Secondly, the rules of civility, sensitivity and feeling of humanity further require that the law enforcers need to speak to the relatives of the suspects or at least let them inform their loved ones that they are in the custody of the law enforcers so that they can know where they are. This apparently has never happened in Mr Kalisto’s case. Therefore, it remains an abduction which in itself is criminal and a total violation of his rights. This is regardless of the status of the individuals holding him—whether security officers or some armed criminals on someone’s payroll.
Thus, as of now, presumably, no one knows who is holding Mr Kalisto incommunicado. There is no statement from the security apparatus showing that he is in their custody. Neither is there a piece of information that he was abducted by some gang members somewhere who were armed and possessed unregistered cars, a military vehicle and donned military regalia.
Even with the silence of the security apparatus, there has been blame aimed at them under the suspicion that the arrest was made by the law enforcers. It is therefore prudent that the police or any other security organs speak up over this matter. Continued silence over this issue is subjecting the relatives of the victim to emotional torture and is equally violating his rights.
Further, it is worth noting that failure to speak up over this issue will open up a ground for such organised crimes, where individuals will plot forced disappearance on their perceived enemies knowing that the country’s security officers will end up on the receiving end of the blame.
The security organs must speak up. They must speak because with the political season beckoning, political scores will be settled in a similar manner and they might end up shouldering the blame and weight of crimes they never committed.
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