Amnesty International said in a new report that the National Security Service in South Sudan uses arbitrary monitoring to intimidate journalists, activists and critics, which leads to the creation of an atmosphere of extreme fear and self -control..
The threat posed by monitoring is a weapon in itself - and the critics of the government and human rights activists have told us that they live in constant fear of spying on them..
The report entitled: “These walls have ears“ - the horrific impact of monitoring in southern Sudan. “New evidence of the ability of the authorities of South Sudan in the field of monitoring, and also highlights the role that telecommunications and monitoring companies that enables to intercept phone calls without the availability of legal guaranteesAdequate.
For example, Amnesty International discovered documents showing that an Israeli company, called Verint Systems LTD, has provided communications technology to the South Sudan government between 2015 and 2017, at least;Despite the high risks that this equipment can contribute to human rights violations.
"The unrestricted and illegal monitoring by the National Security Agency has a terrible impact on civil society and peaceful activity. فThe threat posed by monitoring is a weapon in itself - and the critics of the government and human rights activists have told us that they live in constant fear of spying on them..“
Nevertheless, many brave activists in South Sudan continue to defend their rights and the rights of others, united monitoring, intimidation and harassment. لقد حان الوقت لسلطات جنوب السودان لوقف الممارسات غير القانونية التي يقوم بها جهاز الأمن الوطني، وتمكين الناس من ممارسة حريتهم في التعبير دون خوف من الانتقام“.
Since the independence of South Sudan, in July 2011, freedom of expression has been severely restricted, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee in South Sudan was considered the state one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists..The government uses - primarily through the National Security Service: intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention, torture, and other forms of bad treatment, enforced disappearance, and execution outside the judiciary, to silence government critics, human rights activists, and journalists.
During a two -year investigation, 63 people, including activists, journalists and lawyers from South Sudan, exchanged their experiences and knowledge of material monitoring and communications control in South Sudan, with Amnesty International..The real and supposed threat posed by the National Security Service, coupled with systematic harassment, has a terrible influence on civil society, and described people as living in constant fear.. وقال أحد النشطاء لمنظمة العفو الدولية: “أعتقد بدنياً أنه من المرهق أن تكون قلقاً باستمرار بشأن ما سيحدث لك، أو لأسرتك، وهذا يؤرقك نفسياً“.
Amnesty International has also seen more than 57 reports and a study prepared by United Nations bodies, international governmental organizations, and NGOs, as well as decisions, laws and agreements.The legal framework for southern Sudan gives the National Security Agency wide powers, but without restrictions, to conduct surveillance without providing adequate protection for the right to privacy..
Most activists said that the monitoring, harassment and danger that is looming on the horizon of arbitrary detention, detention, and potential death do not prevent them from speaking frankly, but they control and decorate carefully what they say from words, where they say, and to those who direct it. وقال أحد النشطاء، “لا يمكنك التحدث دون التفكير مرتين في العواقب“.
Penetration
The National Security Agency publishes agents throughout South Sudan and neighboring countries, penetrating at all levels of society and daily life.The approval of the National Security Agency is required to hold public events, which suffocates the real dialogue.Reliable and consistent accounts from multiple sources show that intelligence agents have infiltrated the NGOs, the media, security companies affiliated with the private sector, and hotels.The depth and breadth of the spy network of the National Security Agency creates an environment in which freedom of opinion, expression and privacy violates.
Linking to the phone
All activists that Amnesty International has been concerned about is concerned about monitoring, avoiding talking about sensitive topics over the phone, prefer to speak personally, or through encrypted applications..The telephone conversations, which were eavesdown, were presented as evidence in court.The judges rejected one case, at least, from prominent cases on the basis that the recordings were obtained illegally, and violated the right to privacy..The agents of the National Security Service also recounted the phone calls to detainees in interrogations, and it seems that the records were made as evidence to implement arbitrary detention.
Abdullah (a pseudonym), one of the human rights defenders in South Sudan, told Amnesty International that in August 2018, before arbitrarily arrested, an officer in the National Security Service contacted him, and he narrated a phone conversation with Abdullah with an employee inAn international organization on the threats it faces.Abdullah considers that the National Security Service could not know the contents of the phone call without eavesdropping on his phone.
Most likely, the National Security Agency can intercept communications only in cooperation with telecommunications service providers.A former employee of Vivacell - a telecommunications company that worked in South Sudan until March 2018 - told Amnesty International that the National Security Agency has direct access to all telecommunications service providers through the monitoring technology that was purchased from Israel that,According to his belief, it can be classified as double -use.
Double use technology can serve a legitimate purpose such as ensuring access to communications networks, providing good services to customers and monitoring bills, but it can also be used in illicit government monitoring.
وأخبر موظف سابق، في شركة الاتصالات إمTthat جنوب السودان MTN South Sudan، منظمة العفو الدولية أنه في 2013، قام جهاز الأمن الوطني من خلال شركة إسرائيلية بتركيب “صندوق“ في شركتهم. ويمكن أن يكون تركيب “الصناديق“ هو الطريقة التي يمكن بها للحكومة، بما في ذلك جهاز الأمن الوطني، الحصول مباشرة على البيانات من مقدمي الخدمات.
South Sudan authorities must restrain the National Security Service and put an end to the exercise of the security apparatus to work outside the law.
The former employee of the Vivasil Company said that the government of South Sudan is asking all telecommunications companies operating in South Sudan, to pay the Fernts Systems Limits, which is the Israeli company, which is affiliated with the company..American, Virint Systems Inc for this equipment and providing annual services.
Amnesty International wrote to all companies regarding its findings, and only received a response from the M Group.T.that. MTN، التي ذكرت أن السلطات والقوانين في جنوب السودان تلزم شركات الاتصالات بمراعاة “الاعتراض القانوني“ وأوضحت أن شبكة MTN لا تشغّل معدّات الاعتراض القانوني.
Diprose Machina concluded: “It is the responsibility of the telecommunications companies and the monitoring technology companies responsible for respecting human rights in all their commercial operations..that توفير أنظمة المراقبة لجهاز الأمن الوطني عندما يكون هناك خطر جسيم على حقوق الإنسان، ومنحه إمكانية الوصول دون رقابة إلى شبكات الاتصالات، يعد تخلّياً عن مسؤوليات الشركات.“
“وSouth Sudan authorities must restrain the National Security Service and put an end to the exercise of the security apparatus to work outside the law.An end to the actions of intimidation, harassment, arbitrary detention and illegal detention of government critics must be put in place..
Amnesty International calls on the government of South Sudan to stop the use of the monitoring process, until a suitable organizational framework for human rights is set, and to conduct independent investigations, urgently, in illegal monitoring cases, and other human rights violations to hold the officials accountable for it..