South Sudan experiencing ethnic cleansing, UN report says
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A new United Nations
report describes South Sudan as teetering on the edge of genocide and
experiencing ethnic cleansing, a stark portrayal of a nation whose
crises now include famine.
The seven-month inquiry by the U.N. Commission on
Human Rights into South Sudan is the most comprehensive report so far
into ethnic cleansing and conditions that could lead to genocide in the
nation deep in civil war, according to U.N. officials.South Sudan fell into civil war in December 2013, just two years after it won its independence from Sudan. Tens of thousands have been killed, and more than 1.5 million people have fled the East African nation, becoming Africa's largest migrant crisis.
Now
there is deadly hunger. Late last month, the U.N. and South Sudan's
government declared a famine in two counties affecting about 100,000
people. Roughly 1 million people are at risk of starvation, according to
the U.N.
The new report calls South Sudan's ongoing
restrictions on humanitarian aid access "unlawful," and it warns that
the "'scorched earth' policy may amount to starvation, which is
prohibited by international law as a method of warfare."On the subject of ethnic violence, the report describes how in January, intense fighting in the Upper Nile region meant "members of the Shilluk ethnic community were forced out of their homes," with the town of Wau Shilluk being repeatedly shelled and eventually deserted of more than 20,000 residents.
"My people are at risk of physical and cultural extinction," the leader of the Shilluk Kingdom, Kwongo Dak Padiet, said in a statement dated Saturday and issued separately from the U.N. report. He cited ongoing military operations and controversial laws that divided the traditional Shilluk homeland, signed by Kiir.
The new report also cites "numerous reports of SPLA soldiers targeting Nuer civilians and raping Nuer women, while accusing the women or their families of 'supporting the rebels.'" Many of South Sudan's forces, like Kiir, are ethnic Dinka.
South Sudanese government officials have repeatedly denied that the country is experiencing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing and the risk of genocide are "not an accurate report. There is nothing happening. The people of South Sudan are preparing for the national dialogue," government spokesman Michael Makuei told The Associated Press in an interview. Kiir proposed the dialogue last year.
The new U.N. human rights report also describes how rape has become part of war in South Sudan. "Several women the commission met had not received essential medical assistance for the injuries that they had sustained as a result of rape, gang rape, beating, sexual assault or other violence," the report said. "Many had suffered significant damage to their reproductive organs,"
One
survivor told the commission that she witnessed the rape of another
woman who begged the perpetrators to kill her instead. "After raping the
woman, soldiers cut her genitalia and left her for dead as punishment
for 'being stubborn,'" the report said.
No comments:
Post a Comment