Amid a “massive” increase in gross human rights violations, as
well as an escalation in fighting in South Sudan, the head of a
United Nations rights probe said today that to prevent further
escalation and abuses in a country where “impunity is the norm,”
the international community must be bold enough to push for
establishment of a court and bring prosecutions.
“There can be no more delay, no more excuses,” said Yasmin Sooka,
Chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, as she
presented her report to the UN Human Rights Council, the
Geneva-based body that mandated the three-member panel's work
almost exactly one year ago.
“The alternative,” she continued, “is policy of appeasement –
making us complicit in the bloodshed that is happening.”
Among a host of experts that will this week update the Council on
their work, Ms. Sooka, presenting the report alongside fellow
Commissioners, Godfrey Musilla and Ken Scott, said the situation
in South Sudan continued to deteriorate over the past nine months
as unlawful arrests and detentions, torture, rape and killing
“have become the norm,” including in places that had once been
relatively peaceful.
Pattern of ethnic cleansing, 'population engineering' in some
villages
“Whole villages burnt to ashes, attacks on hospitals and
churches, bodies dumped in rivers, allegations of young girls
held as sexual slaves, women young and old gang raped and boys
and men forcibly recruited,” she said, adding that South Sudan is
the world's third largest refugee crisis, with nearly two million
internally displaced and more than one and a half million
refugees having fled to neighbouring countries.
The report, she said, makes it clear that South Sudanese
civilians have been deliberately and systematically targeted on
the basis of their ethnicity by Government and government-aligned
forces, for killing, abduction, unlawful detention, deprivation
of liberty, rape and sexual violence, the burning of their
villages, and looting.
“On the ground, this translates into bound corpses left on
roadsides, hunger where once there was plenty, and thousands of
children ripped from their mothers – some forced to carry guns
and kill – yet another lost generation,” stated Ms. Sooka,
stressing that citizens are treated like enemy combatants because
of their perceived political allegiance to the other side,
calculated by ethnicity. Opposition forces too have been
responsible for human rights abuses although to a lesser extent,
she added.
Relief agencies, including the UN, have little choice to accept
the restrictions imposed by South Sudan as they cannot walk away
and let millions of people starve
She went on to say that the scale of sexual violence in South
Sudan “is so horrifying that the consequences of doing nothing
are unthinkable.” Indeed, perpetrators will be emboldened if the
international community ignores the issue.
The experts also reported on a pattern of ethnic cleansing and
“population engineering.” When the Commission visited the
northern town of Malakal, it saw how the redrawing of state
boundary lines had helped depopulate the town of its Shilluk and
Nuer inhabitants. Civil servants had been forcibly relocated out
of the town on the basis of their ethnicity.
Reiterating the Commission's call for an international impartial
and independent investigation to be established by the UN – to
examine the most serious crimes, including conflict-related
sexual violence, committed since December 2013, she said the
findings should establish the extent of ongoing violations and
support the work of the promised Commission on Truth,
Reconciliation and Healing and the Hybrid Court for South Sudan,
which should be operational by the end of the year.
Small coterie of political leaders has 'plundered the country
“There can be no more delay, no more excuses,” stated Ms. Sooka,
underscoring that the deterioration in the human rights situation
in South Sudan is directly attributable to impunity. The
challenge for accountability is that alleged perpetrators still
occupy senior political and military positions.
“A small coterie of South Sudan's political leaders show total
disregard not just for international human rights norms but for
the welfare of their own people. They have squandered the oil
wealth and plundered the country's resources. Today the
Government of South Sudan has effectively devolved most of its
service delivery to the international community,” she said,
adding that international humanitarians, including the UN, have
little choice to accept the restrictions imposed by the State as
they cannot walk away and let millions of people starve.
“The dilemma between being outspoken on human rights and securing
access has never been more stark,” she said adding that: “In a
country where impunity is the norm, the mere knowledge that
credible information is being gathered can act as a deterrent.
But only if we are bold enough to push for the immediate
establishment of the Hybrid Court and prosecutions.”
South Sudan gained independence in 2011 but fell into violence in
late 2013 when a political rivalry between President Salva Kiir
and his then-deputy Riek Machar erupted into full-fledged
conflict.
