Bill of Rights

Like a typical American, I never really think about the freedoms afforded me when living in the US. And I probably wouldn't have though much about them living abroad if it hadn't been for a recent incident. On Wed, Sept 9 the Sudanese government and military staged a huge disarmament activity, going house to house, business to business, in search of illegal weapons. We didn't catch notice of it until about 6 AM when the cook was detained on his way here to the compound. Fortunately there is a large NGO network and a communication tree to spread news like this, so my organization reported in and helped sound the warning. All day Wednesday we were on restricted movement, unable to leave the compound. At about 9 AM a group of approximately 5 soldiers entered the compound to search for weapons. As an international NGO we should have been spared this exercise, but the soldiers went everywhere, even illegally entering diplomatic properties (and later having to issue an apology for violating the Vienna Convention which precludes entering foreign diplomatic missions without permission). It was a little frightening, but not too obtrusive until they came through to search all the living quarters. Since this is a temporary accommodation for me, my suitcases are still mostly packed. I was asked (not very politely) to open each one and move around the contents so the soldiers to verify I wasn't hiding an unregistered weapon. There was a vague feeling of having been violated after the search...and this sense of "hey, can you really do that to me?" It wasn't until later that I began to think about the Bill of Rights and appreciate Articles 2 & 4 - the rights to bear and keep arms and protection against unreasonable search and seizure. I'm reading a biography of Martha Washington right now, and this experience helps me better appreciate some of the things the patriots were fighting for.

I couldn't take a picture of the search, without getting imprisoned or fined, so here is a picture of my room and you can imagine 2 soldiers coming in and pulling apart the bed, searching the closet, and looking through (and touching!) all my clothes both packed and unpacked.

And if you check out this article, you can mentally place the soldiers in my tiny room. http://www.newsudanvision.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1879:south-sudan-security-forces-mount-an-intensive-search-for-illegal-guns-in-juba&catid=1:sudan-news-stories&Itemid=6