UN urges South Sudan to end tribal violence in Jonglei state
June 25, 2012 (JUBA) – South Sudan has to develop a comprehensive plan to end violence in Jonglei state, said the United Nations after the release of a report on the inter-tribal violence that took place during the end of 2011 and February of this year.
Some 900 people were killed during the attacks carried by the Lou Nuer youth on the villages of Murle tribe during 12 days. Also women and children were abducted by the assailants who balm the latter for killing and kidnapping their kids in past attacks.
The Murles also launched retaliatory attacks on Lou Nuer and Bor Dinka villages and the fight continued to the first week of February 2012.
The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) underlined in its report the failure of South Sudanese authorities to protect civilians in the immense state of the new country stressing the lack of intervention impacted negatively on the situation.
“The failure of the Government to protect civilians from violence, investigate incidents and hold perpetrators accountable is believed to have contributed to this cycle of attacks which have resulted in increasing numbers of casualties and been marked by acts of deliberate cruelty,” says the report.
UNMISS chief Hilde F. Johnson, called in a statement released in Juba Monday to study the causes of this tribal attacks and to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to the justice.
“This needs to be part of a comprehensive peace process in the state,” she added.
The report provides a nine-point roadmap to avert future major outbreaks of violence, including the urgent activation of the Government’s Investigation Committee into the Jonglei State Crisis. Further It calls to prosecute the responsible for the violence pointing that such measure requires urgent Government action to strengthen all aspects of the country’s justice system.
UNMISS said that it carried out a series of extensive air and ground patrols that provided timely intelligence on the mobilization of armed youths and the destruction they inflicted on unarmed civilian populations in Jonglei.
The international mission also deployed troops, alongside units of the South Sudanese army, which helped save many lives in Pibor County in December 2011 and early January of this year.
The report points out that the delays in the SPLA deployments, despite early warning by UNMISS, prevented adequate protection of civilians.
In addition, it identifies constraints that prevented UNMISS from fulfilling more effectively its mandated responsibility to protect civilians under the imminent threat of physical violence.
(ST)