Independence won, freedom yet to come for South Sudan - Al-Arabiya

It was the pouring rain on his parched lips that woke South Sudanese lawyer Ring Bulabek, left for dead in a cemetery after three days of bloody beatings by attackers who wanted him to drop a legal case.

“Maybe they thought I was dead, and so they threw me there,” said the 23-year-old, who was grabbed by attackers off the streets of the capital, Juba, late last year, driven to an abandoned house and beaten.

In the world’s newest country -- which won independence only in 2011 after decades of guerilla war against a hardline government in Sudan -- Bulabek says the gun is still mightier than the law.

For the fledgling nation, unlearning the harsh lessons taught by long years of Islamist and militarist rule of Sudan's government in Khartoum is a tough task.

“The military ignore the rule of law but maybe -- step by step and after many years -- the rule of law will take over”, Bulabek said, who left his job after the attack.

His kidnappers had ordered him to end his legal work supporting a widow whose house had been seized by a general, and threatened to kill him if he did not cooperate.

“I’m not going back to my job as I’m not secure... those that did this to me are still free,” he said.

Bulabek’s beating is not an isolated case.

“Some of the people... are repeating the mistakes of Khartoum,” said Deng Athuai, chairman of South Sudan's Civil Rights Alliance, who was also kidnapped and beaten for days by men who asked who was paying him to “cause trouble”.

Prior to the attack, Athuai had publically called for the naming of 75 government officials accused by President Salva Kiir of gross corruption and stealing $4 billion (3 billion euros) from the oil-rich but impoverished nation.

After days of beating, he was released -- hooded and gagged -- only after the kidnappers fled as they drove him out into the remote bush and came across an army patrol.

But the threats against the alliance continued.

News editors were summoned to the feared national security headquarters and ordered not to mention the stolen $4 billion.

“We knew the consequences of non-compliance”, said one editor, adding that journalists were terrified after security forces began to make home visits.

“They come at night, pick you up and you can be beaten or perhaps end up dead,” the editor said. “The army can be used by anyone who has money.”

In December, journalist and political commentator Isaiah Abraham was dragged from his house at night and shot in the face after receiving threats from a caller who “didn’t like his articles”, said his brother William.

Another activist, John Penn de Ngong, found a bundle of bones with a bullet inside on his bed as a grim warning.

Equating dissent with treason