UNSC imposes sanctions on six South Sudanese generals
July 2, 2015 (JUBA) – The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on six South Sudanese generals, three from each side of the conflict, to face global travel bans and asset freezes.
On the armed opposition side, the sanctions target Major-Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual, chief of the general staff, Major-General James Koang Chuol, who led attacks in Upper Nile State, and General Peter Gadet, the rebels’ deputy chief of staff for operations.
The sanctions came a day after a UN report alleged that government troops gang-raped and burned alive women and girls in Unity state, during offensives against rebels.
“As the members of the Security Council demonstrated today, those who commit atrocities and undermine peace will face consequences,” Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the world body said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune.
She urged both sides to “put aside their self-serving ambitions, end the fighting, and engage in negotiations to establish a transitional government, warning of additional sanctions.
South Sudan, the world youngest nations, has been in turmoil fighting since December 2013, when internal disputes with its ruling party (SPLM) sparked off an ethnic-like conflict. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced in the country’s worst ever outbreak of violence since its independence.
The Security Council, Power said, had demonstrated that those who committed atrocities and undermined peace during the South Sudanese conflict would face consequences.
“South Sudan’s political leadership has squandered the international goodwill that accompanied its independence and pursued political and economic self-interest that has produced only violence, displacement and suffering for the South Sudanese people,” said Power.
“The United States joins other members of the Security Council in demanding that both parties immediately cease offensive military action and commit themselves to the difficult but necessary task of negotiating a peace agreement,” she added.
The UN sanctions, she said, supports negotiation efforts by designating military leaders who committed abuses or violated the cessations of hostilities agreement and that it directly responds to the May 22 and June 13 AU Peace and Security Council statements, which called on the UN to sanction those undermining the peace process.
The US, Power stressed, is appalled by recent reports of the targeting of women and girls for sexual abuse, including gang rape and the burning alive of civilians in their homes, as detailed in the UN mission’s 29 June human rights report on Upper Nile state.
“Such allegations must be fully investigated and perpetrators held accountable,” she said, adding “In the meantime, the way to avoid further designations is to put an end to such violence against civilians, stop the fighting and come to a peace agreement,”.
(ST)