Courtesy - of - ibnlive.in.com

The government and the SPLM/SPLA–in Opposition have rejected the UN report that accuses their forces of committing human rights violations since the beginning of the conflict.

The UN Mission in South Sudan presented an interim report last week to the UN Security Council citing alleged human rights abuses in Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile states.

The report revealed that both sides to the conflict have committed mass killing, torture, rape, enforced disappearance and that civilians continue to be targeted along community lines.

The report accuses government soldiers of carrying out targeted killing of civilians from one community during house-to-house searches in Juba from the 15^th to the 17^th of December last year.

It also says a large number of civilians were displaced in Juba as a result of deliberate targeted killing by members of the government forces.

However, the government spokesperson, Michael Makuei Lueth, told Eye Radio in Addis Ababa that the report was biased.

“Well of course the report which has been presented by UNMISS, we know that individuals who are in charge of UNMISS in Juba are not fair, they are not neutral. For that matter, it is not strange that such a report is rendered. And if they were to be neutral, then they would have rendered a report that is really genuine and acceptable to everybody. UNMISS is actually silent about the atrocities being committed by the rebels in Malakal, the atrocities which they have committed and have been committing all this time, they are supposed to respond and come up with a clear communique or a clear press release condemning all that is happening.”

The report UNMISS presented to the Security Council cited crimes allegedly committed by the SPLA –in Opposition in Upper Nile.

The report said armed youth and defectors from the SPLA and police service targeted members of other communities in Malakal town after the December killings in Juba.

On the 19^th of January, UNMISS quoted eyewitnesses as saying that about ten unarmed civilians were killed by opposition forces in Malakal Teaching Hospital.

It also said that UN staff witnessed the extra-judicial execution of two children outside the perimeter of the UN compound by armed youths believed to be allied with armed opposition forces on the 20^th of February.

However, the military spokesperson of the SPLM/SPLA –in Opposition, Brigadier General Lul Ruai, denied the allegations. He was speaking to Eye Radio.

“You can put anything in the report and it does not mean it is valid. About the people that were killed in Malakal, that was the time our forces were out of Malakal. We have been protesting,  telling the world that it’s wrong for the government that is supposed to protect the people to target them so why would we do the same thing that the government stands accused? We have been very clear with our commanders: let their soldiers know that it is wrong to kill women and children, it is wrong to kill elderly people, it is wrong to kill people who are surrendering. Now where there are cases of an individual doing the opposite, that individual should be held responsible and nobody should shelter that person. When we find out that we have some people who committed some crimes, then they will carry their own cross. So the authors of this report should have been courageous enough based on the evidence they first collected in Juba to say exactly this party is more responsible for these atrocities,” he said.

The UNMISS interim report states that holding perpetrators of the crimes accountable is crucial for ensuring respect for human rights and as a means to address the underlying causes of South Sudan’s crisis.