S. Sudan rebel faction welcomes AU, ICC investigations into rights abuses
September 28, 2014 (KAMPALA) – A senior South Sudanese rebel official said they have no objection to an investigation into alleged human right violations committed during the more than nine-month-long armed conflict with the government.
Pierino says the leadership of the opposition faction of South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) is well prepared for any investigation into alleged abusescalling on for an engagement of human right experts to investigate out atrocities committed in the world’s new nation.
Headed by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, the five-member African Union Commission of Inquiry is part of efforts to hold those responsible for rights violations accountable and achieve a conducive environment for a lasting political settlement to the crisis.
“We are fully waiting, we are going to respect [the] Obsanjo[-led] commission … if it is transparent we will look at it, but let us not cross the bridge before we reach there,” said Pierino.
He claims the South Sudanese government fears being held accountable for ethnic-motivated killings which took place at the beginning of the conflict.
He told Sudan Tribune the current war was imposed on the people of South Sudan by president Salva Kiir on people of South Sudan.
The rebel group said it remains fully committed to cooperating with the investigators, saying it welcomed the involvement of Human Rights Watch and other independent right groups, which are documenting alleged atrocities committed in the country.
Pierino said the rebel movement also welcomed the involvement of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
David Otim, the rebel envoy to Kampala, has applauded Pierino’s calls, demanding a thorough investigation into the alleged killings of innocent civilians by government forces in Juba.
He said the SPLM in Opposition had taken up arms against the dictatorial rule in Juba to fight for better services delivery and governance to in South Sudan.
Otim has accused president Kiir of lacking the credentials to lead the country, saying he had transformed the SPLM into a visionless body that represented his own interests rather than the people.
The senior official also claimed Kiir had lost all credibility since South Sudan gained independence from the north in 2011 following a more than two decades long civil war.
“You (Kiir) help us to win the country and the flag, but now the people want something is not about [the] slogan ‘SPLM Oyee Oyee!’ No, [it] is about delivery of services – school, hospitals and good roads,” said Otim.
“Right now in Juba people are dying because of typhoid, including even many leaders,” he added.
He says the people of South Sudan were being manipulated through the use of the slogan and that the party had consistently failed to put the interests of the nation above its own.
Otim further accused the Kiir administration of fostering corruption since the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement which paved the way for the 2011 referendum on independence, saying he had so far failed to prosecute any officials.
He claimed many senior officials, put off by the lack of services in South Sudan, had now moved to Uganda in search of a better quality of life
“South Sudan is just like garden. You see the shopper went there, they pick the money from there and [then] they come and stay in Uganda [and] they look for good places,” Otim told Sudan Tribune on Sunday.
Meanwhile, he maintained that those who died as a result of the current crisis did not die in vain, but as an icon for freedom of all South Sudanese people for the restoration of democracy and political vision.
(ST)