UN commission seeks criminal probe of top South Sudan officials for atrocities

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A United Nations commission is calling for criminal investigations of senior government and military officials in South Sudan who remain in their posts even after mounting evidence of their links to atrocities against civilians.

The commission, in a yearlong investigation in six of South Sudan’s states, found evidence of widespread attacks against civilians, including killings, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence and mass displacement.

Government and military officials have never faced any accountability for their roles in the atrocities, the commission said in a 114-page report released on Monday.

“Our findings have consistently shown that impunity for serious crimes is a central driver of violence and misery faced by civilians in South Sudan,” commission chair Yasmin Sooka said in a statement on Monday.

“So we have taken the step of naming more of the individuals who warrant criminal investigation and prosecution for their role in gross human rights violations,” she said.

Among those named were the governor of Unity state, Joseph Monytuil, and a senior military commander, Lieutenant-General Thoi Chany Reat. Both should face criminal investigations for their role in state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings of civilians in August, 2022, the report said.

It also named a county commissioner and others who were allegedly involved in attacks on civilians.

“These officials have faced no effective investigation, let alone sanction, despite the crimes being captured on camera and further incriminating evidence being posted on an official Facebook page,” the report said. “Senior political figures are a law unto themselves.”

Hundreds of South Sudanese people gave evidence to the commission, describing a range of human rights violations they had endured. “Their suffering is immense,” commission member Andrew Clapham said in a statement.

South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011, becoming the world’s youngest country in a process that Canada and the United States strongly supported. With its oil wealth and Western backing, South Sudan seemed to have a bright future. But just two years later, a power struggle among its top political leaders triggered a horrific civil war.

By 2018, nearly 400,000 people had died as a result of the war, making it one of the world’s deadliest conflicts, according to a study by British-based researchers. Despite several peace agreements, the violence has continued since then, contributing to a humanitarian disaster in the country.

“Neglected and abused by their leaders, people in South Sudan continue to be traumatized by ongoing armed violence and human rights violations,” the UN commission said in its report. “Millions of lives are marked, and many have been visibly scarred, by the traumas.”

The commission gave graphic and shocking details of atrocities inflicted on civilians, including beheadings and torture, mass rapes of young girls and the burning alive of a captive.

The commission also documented the climate of fear in South Sudan, caused by the frequent arrests or abductions of activists, journalists, protest organizers and other independent voices, usually perpetrated by security agents who use threats and torture to silence dissidents.

“The space for public debate has now virtually disappeared,” the commission reported. “Human rights activists continue being harassed, arbitrarily detained and threatened with death and other forms of harm.”

Anyone who raises these issues on social media can be harassed, and some civil society organizations have been forced to close. Even those who leave the country have sometimes been abducted and brought back for imprisonment, it said.

South Sudan’s government has repeatedly tried to shut down the work of the UN commission by blocking the renewal of its mandate. But in a decision on Monday, the UN Human Rights Council voted 19-9 to extend the commission’s mandate for another year. The council’s 13 African member states, however, voted against the renewal or abstained.

The renewal is an important signal of accountability in South Sudan, since the UN commission has an official mandate to collect and preserve evidence that could be used in future prosecutions of crimes under international law, Amnesty International said.

“The pervasive impunity in South Sudan perpetuates cycles of violence,” Amnesty regional director Tigere Chagutah said in a statement after the UN vote. “People are still living amid armed conflict and regularly face attacks, unlawful killings, displacement and rape.”