Human Rights Watch says around one hundred young people have been unlawfully detained and ill-treated in Lakes State.

“The Governor ordered that there should be fifty people from eider side arrested. But these people, according to people in those villages, were not directly responsible for these killings,” HRW Researcher for South Sudan Skye Wheeler told Eye Radio.

The actions come as a response to an inter-communal violence in the state mid last month, they say.

Last month, the state governor ordered for arrest of civilians following an armed conflict involving two communities in Rumbek East leading to several people dead.

Human Rights say they were unlawfully detained in a military prison.

“The laws of South Sudan are quite clear about how long they can detain people for, without producing them in court in 24hours. It should not have civilian in a military prison,” Ms. Wheeler added.

Misses Wheeler said that some of the detainees who were released complained they were severely beaten in the prison.

She calls on the government to investigate cases of torture reported during the detention.

However, Lakes state caretaker Governor Matur Chut denies the report, describing it as false.

“I got the report, but it is all lies….including the one about the prison in Lang’cok where all the prisoners are being kept.”

Governor Chut added that the HRW report is political.

“If you read the report, it was politically motivated, because they spoke to politicians, including those that were suspended.

“That is why they are talking about all the bad things. Why can’t they talk about the things that are truly happening?”