By Bida Elly David
A civil society activist has condemned the incident about the killing of one of the SSPDF senior military officers and singer in Yei and urged the army to immediately investigate and hold the perpetrators accountable.
Speaking to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) said that the death of Yuma Sebastian was a clear indication that he was tortured and beaten.
“As an activist, I am calling upon the authority to hold the perpetrators accountable. I want the leadership of South Sudan Defense Forces (SSPDF) to act now because these actions of extrajudicial killings or murder as well as assassination is spoiling the reputation of the army” Yakani said.
“The Army authority should commission the incident of Yuma before military justice and arrest the perpetrators who are responsible for taking away the life of the innocent citizen” he urged.
“I would like to condemn the incident that happened in Yei where we have lost one of our military officers Yuma Sebastian and a gospel artist who was formerly arrested and found dead. The information we got was that he died of sickness but also there are signs of torture. He has been tortured to death. If you see also the statement issued by Yei River County commissioner described the death of Yuma Sebastian as the incident of torture. The statement from the commissioner said investigation is taking place or commissioned for the torture that led to the death of Yuma in the military barracks” he said.
The activist reiterated that the army’s weakness towards resolving cases against civilians is tragedy and blamed them for not holding perpetrators accountable in several occasions.
“This is not the first time such incidences are happening where so many people in uniforms are claiming lives of innocent civilians and so this is now very disturbing and we need to see justice prevailing to ensure that the perpetrators despite their positions should explain, The process of investigating them should also be done in a transparent manner” Yakani called.
“We don’t want to see the case of Kajo-Keji where investigations were done and the perpetrators were not held accountable until one of the victims had to commit suicide” he echoed.
Furthermore, he urged the authorities of the state and the leadership of the military to take this matter serious but not a joking doll.
“The leadership of the military especially the Chief of Military Justice should take a primary and immediate action not to run out of hands and I call on the citizens of Yei River County to remain calm and not to take the law out of hands and leave the leadership of the State and the army to look over the matter” he said.