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Bringing perpetrators of rights abuses to justice big challenge for S. Sudan: UN official

Xinhua, April 24, 2017 Adjust font size:

One of the biggest problems in South Sudan is a lack of accountability for crimes perpetrated during the ongoing conflict there, a United Nations (UN) official said here Sunday.

Earlier violence in April in South Sudan's northwestern Wau region had killed 19 Sudan soldiers and at least 28 civilians, and displaced more than 23,000, said Eugene Nindorera, the human rights director for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), as he ended his visit to the place.

Nindorera was on a three-day trip to Wau to assess the current situation in the area, visiting neighborhoods that have been deserted because they were directly affected by the fighting between government troops and ethnic groups.

According to a UN press release, since April 11, the Human Rights Division of UNMISS has interviewed 43 individuals, including eight women and two children. The purpose of the interview was to collect information about alleged human rights violations by government forces and aligned armed groups in Wau town on April 10.

"I can confirm that, as of Sunday, nobody is being detained in connection with this attack against civilians," said Nindorera.

Letting those responsible for the violence go unpunished is one of the greatest challenges to stopping violence in South Sudan's civil war, which has been raging for over three years, he said.

"I talked to victims and witnesses and was shaken to hear their testimonies of how they had to flee their houses after being attacked. It's more important than ever before that people are held accountable for the crimes they have committed," the UN official said.

Nindorera also said that after meeting the governor of Wau state that the governor had set up a committee to put together an extensive report to identify the perpetrators and their motives in order to hold the perpetrators accountable.

UNMISS has confirmed that by April 20, there were some 17,000 new arrivals at its civilian protection site in Wau, mostly women and children. Meanwhile, about 5,000 people had sought sanctuary inside the Wau Catholic Church. Endi