South Sudan says probing diplomat over “sexual assault” in New York
August 24, 2022 (JUBA) – South Sudan says it is investigating allegations that one of its diplomats at the United Nations sexually assaulted a neighbour, prompting police to briefly detain him in New York.
The undersecretary in the Foreign Affairs ministry, Mayen Dut Wol told Sudan Tribune he learned of the diplomat’s arrest through the media and contacted the mission head and his deputy for more details.
“There was no report that has come from our mission to the United Nations suggesting incident. My attraction was drawn to the media report for which we have started to conduct internal verification about the allegation”, explained Dut.
He said the mission head was out of office, making it difficult to obtain information on what transpired.
Dut said the media report did not cite any source and quoted anonymous sources, including the victim.
“Nobody came out to lodge the complaint against one of diplomats at our permission to the United Nations. If such incident has occurred, it would have been brought to our attention through appropriate and official channels. This has not happened as far as I’m concerned,” he stressed.
Multiple sources told Sudan Tribune that the suspect is a known miscreant diplomat, citing undiplomatic behaviours during private functions and going to off-limits places in the areas of his assigned locations.
“I am not surprised of such reports. I knew one day incidents of such nature would be brought to the attention of the government South Sudan because of the behaviours of our diplomats. They do not have ethics because they are professional diplomats. These are nominees of either political parties or leaders who have decided to staff our foreign services with their relatives or friends”, a senior diplomat at the Foreign Affairs ministry on Tuesday.
The diplomat claimed that the foreign service has turned into a “dumping site” for relatives of senior government officials as well as relatives and family members of top security and military officers.
Today if one of the senior government officials or a top general, police, security and defence feel ashamed of the behaviours of his relatives or family members in the country, they resort to sending them to the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation for assignment outside the country.
It remains unclear what the foreign ministry and the office of the president would do if the incident is established to be a true story.
Observers are keen to suggestion measures which the authorities would take to address the matter.
Some claim the first measure would be to relocate the diplomat from the area where the incident occurred or else he would be recalled to the headquarters for proper investigations to be conducted.
Another way as part of the measures would involve reaching out to the victim with an apology and finally a disciplinary measure would be taken. Such a measure would a summary dismissal of the diplomat from not only in the foreign service but also in the civil servant category of the country.
(ST)