South Sudanese gov’t troops accused of gross human rights violations: report
May 23, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan army (SPLA) forces loyal to president Salva Kiir is accused of carrying out gross human rights abuses including gruesome killings of civilians, abduction of adolescent boys and girls and raping of women and young girls in the oil-rich Unity state.
Amnesty International researchers who have just returned from Bentiu in Unity released documented violations, quoting the victims of the atrocities.
Most army officers and soldiers who do the fighting on behalf of the government are from Machar’s Nuer ethnic group, also targeting their fellow Nuer in the state whom they accuse of supporting the rebels, the report said.
“Individuals who fled violence in Rubkona, Guit, Koch and Leer counties consistently described government forces, some in SPLA uniform and others in civilian clothing, mostly from the Bul section of the Nuer ethnic group, attacking their villages armed with axes, machetes and guns,” said Amnesty International.
The interviewees gave chilling accounts of the government forces setting entire villages on fire, killing and beating residents, looting livestock and other property, committing acts of sexual violence and abducting women and children.
Amnesty International quoted a 45-year-old woman as saying that government forces reached Panthap, in Rubkona county, early on the morning of 8 May. They instructed villagers to bring out all their property and took away anything of value. She said they beat her with a stick, but no one was killed. She fled with approximately 200 other villagers, arriving at the UN camp for displaced persons in Bentiu on 12 May.
A woman who said was from Chatchara, in Rubkona county, described an attack on her village on 7 May by groups of Nuer young men she believed were allied with president Salva Kiir’s government.
“They came and said, ‘bring your property out,’ and then they burnt our tukul [thatch-roofed mud structure]. They beat us with sticks and metal rods, saying ‘where are the boys and young men?’ They took our property, our maize and clothes, and forced us to carry them towards Mayom. We were many women from the village. One woman got tired and was killed. They also shot her two-year old daughter,” she said.
A 70 year-old man, also from Chatchara, similarly described beating, burning and looting by the government forces in which their livestock were looted and girls abducted.
“When the SPLA arrived, they beat me and set fire to my three tukuls, and all the tukuls in the village. They took the cows and goats. Some children were shot in the crossfire. Many women and children were killed. I saw young children and women taken and forced to drive the cows and goats. They took my granddaughter, a girl of 13 or 14 years.”
Another 20 year-old woman from Guit county, home town of rebels chief negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, also recounted how a group of armed SPLA soldiers and youth attacked her village on the night of 7 May.
“They even killed young children and old men. They set the granaries, where we keep maize, on fire. They came to my house and shot my nephew who was about 20 years-old. They beat my mother with a rope used for tying the cows. They were asking her, ‘Where are the young men, we want to kill them, they have joined the opposition,” Amnesty International quoted her as narrating.
“I took off running with my three children and two siblings. We ran to the river while they were shooting at us. From the river, I saw them burn the house. They also took our cows and goats—we had 15 cows and 30 goats.”
She also said four men raped her 23-year-old cousin, a mother of two, and abducted her 13 year old sister and 15 year old brother.
Nyanaath, a mother of three, said that government forces attacked her village in Guit county at midday on 10 May. She said the attackers, some of whom were in uniform, stole cows, looted property and set all the tukuls on fire.
She said women, including herself were raped at gun point by the government forces. Nyanaath told Amnesty International that soldiers took her, pushed her on her back and pulled down her underwear.
She said one started raping her while another pointed his gun at her. She also said she saw 10 boys and girls, aged between 10 and 13, being abducted by soldiers.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says some 100,000 people have been displaced by the recent fighting in Unity state. About 2,300 civilians, mostly women and young children, have sought refuge at the UN base in Bentiu since 20 April, joining over 50,000 others who have fled there since the start of the conflict in December 2013. More are on their way.
Government forces have blocked others at checkpoints, preventing them from reaching the safety of the base. Thousands have fled into the bush or swamp areas.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that at least 28 towns and villages in Unity state were attacked in the space of two weeks, between 29 April and 12 May. Civilians were targeted and their property was looted.
CALL FOR ACTION
The rights group has called on the international community to act fast, calling on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to impose a comprehensive arms embargo against all parties to the conflict in South Sudan.
“The UN Security Council to move quickly to impose asset freezes and travel bans against individuals and entities who have engaged in violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of international human rights law,” the statement says.
It said the UN Security Council should make public and act upon a paper outlining options for accountability that the Council members reportedly discussed on 12 May.
The report also called on the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council to release and make public the report of the Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan conflict, pending the finalisation of a peace agreement.
On the other hand, it called on the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to quickly reconvene parties to the conflict and impress upon them that they are bound by commitments to abide by international humanitarian law incorporated within the 23 January cessation of hostilities agreement and recommitted to on numerous occasions over the past year.
(ST)