Police on Sunday dispersed a group of protesters and mourners in Juba, including a family carrying two bodies of relatives shot dead on Saturday night by armed robbers in Nyakuron residential area.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, an eyewitness said that she saw police blocking the road from Juba town to ministries, which runs via the presidential palace. Protesters who approached the roadblock were broken up by police.

This is the second recent protest against violent crime in Juba. A crowd last Monday that protested at the parliament likewise carried two bodies of men allegedly murdered by gunmen in police uniforms. 

Around 9:00 yesterday morning, as police tried to disperse the mourners the two dead bodies they were carrying were thrown down and later picked up by the police and taken to Juba Teaching Hospital, an act that angered many citizens who witnessed the police action.

“Police did not pay respect to the bodies and went ahead to beat the people morning their relatives. Where is the dignity for those bodies?” she said.

Another witness said that she heard police shooting at Juba Teaching Hospital where the two bodies were taken, causing panic in the hospital and the neighbourhood.

“I was getting to hospital from the church when I heard shooting and ran to Hai Gem side where I saw people who were beaten by the police also running from further beating,” he said.

Reacting to the incident, many citizens were upset. John Bakima, a businessman, said that police in South Sudan have no respect for citizens. He said “they are the people who every day violate the constitution of this nation and yet they were the one to protect it.”

Sadiya Khamis, a mother of five children residing in Hai Gem, an area near the presidential palace, said that relationship between the police and the citizen is “dead.”

“You cannot have security in your homes, the same police are reported in many incidents of robbing citizens, beating innocent people, taking their property. How can we respect them?” she questioned

She said that nights in Juba are not safe. “Even if you go to hide in the police compound still you will not be safe,” she said.

In related news, the Interior Minister Aleu Ayeny Aleu has called for police reform. Speaking at the airport after returning from a police leadership conference in Wau, the minister disclosed that resolutions were adopted in order to transform the police across South Sudan and address “rampant insecurity” in major cities in the county.

Photo: Security forces leaving the scene of an operation at Juba Day Secondary School where live fire wounded two people and terrified pupils who had been protesting at a construction site adjoining the school grounds, 31 October 2012 (Radio Tamazuj).