UNSC condemns human rights violations in S. Sudan
December 15, 2014 (JUBA) – The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the serious human rights violations and abuses that caused the death of tens of thousands of civilians and displaced has nearly two million people in South Sudan.
“The Security Council underscores the significant importance of fighting impunity and ensuring accountability for serious violations and abuses of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law in South Sudan, and of continued delivery of life-saving and other humanitarian assistance to the South Sudanese people,” partly reads the statement issued on Monday.
Talks between South Sudan government and the opposition are due to resume on Wednesday in Ethiopia after being postponed for weeks by the mediators, pending consultations.
The 15-member body urged the two warring parties to “engage fully and inclusively in ongoing peace talks in Addis Ababa, uphold their commitment to establish a Transitional Government of National Unity, and allow and facilitate, in accordance with relevant provisions of international law and United Nations guiding principles of humanitarian assistance, the full, safe and unhindered access of relief personnel, equipment and supplies to all those in need and timely delivery of humanitarian assistance”.
It’s a year since South Sudan plunged into violence following disputes within its ruling party (SPLM).
The conflict reportedly overshadows the great hope and optimism felt by South Sudanese three years after the country gained its independence from Khartoum.
North and South Sudan fought over two decades of civil war, which ended with the 2005 signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Kenya.
The world body’s 15-member council further reiterated the need to impose targeted sanctions on those it considers to be impeding the peace process.
Last week, South Sudanese officials criticised growing calls for sanctions, saying such measures would undermine the ongoing peace negotiations.
Meanwhile, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Monday highlighted the “dreadful” situation of civilians in South Sudan, who are victims of targeted killings, looting and violence, and have been surviving in increasingly desperate living conditions since the conflict broke out a year ago.
Zeid warned that there were deeply worrying indications that fighting would intensify now that the dry season had begun, and urged all parties to practice restraint, engage in meaningful dialogue and work to restore calm.
“The people of South Sudan are living in a tinderbox, with emotions high, an abundant flow of weapons and with both sides recruiting fighters, often forcefully and including children,” she said.
“Inflammatory rhetoric is also on the rise and there has been sporadic fighting in which civilians have been killed and displaced and their property looted,” she added.
The senior UN official appealed to both sides of the South Sudanese conflict to use the talks to restore calm and avert another human catastrophe in the country.
According to Zeid, there were daily reports of fighting and skirmishes, and while there has not been the large-scale fighting that occurred before the start of the rainy season, even small-scale skirmishes frequently result in the killing of numerous civilians.
“The high level of mistrust within and between communities, based on perceived support for either the Government or the opposition, means that violence is easily triggered,” she said.
“Reports of gross abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law are all too common in the current conflict, and there is a disturbing pattern in which civilians are targeted and killed during hostilities for perceived or actual affiliation with a group different to the armed element in control,” added Zeid.
(ST)