The SPLA committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Unity
state of South Sudan
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H.E. Barack Obama,
The President of the United States of America
H.E. Dmitry Medvedev,
The President of Russia
H.E. Hu Jintao,
The President of the People Republic of China
H.E. David Cameron,
The Prime Minster of United Kingdom
H.E. Nicolas Sarkozy,
The President of the French Republic
H.E. Stephen Harper,
Prime Minster of Canada
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General
Date 30/05/’11
SUBJECT: THE SPLA COMMITTED WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN
UNITY STATE OF SOUTH SUDAN
Excellencies,
The undersigned members of Nuer community worldwide are hereby
appealing to the world nations to authorize International Criminal
Court (ICC) to launch an investigation on heinous crimes the Sudan
People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) committed against the civilians of
four sub-counties of Bul Nuer of Unity State of South Sudan. On May
20, 2011, Mayom County commissioner, Charles Machieng Kuol, revealed
to the international media that after the South Sudan forces attacked
rebels at four sub-counties of Mayom and Mankien, the SPLA army burnt
8,000 civilian homesteads to ashes. Sixty five children, elderly women
and men who had disabilities and were not physically able to escape
were burned alive. The SPLA soldiers also killed the livestock and
shot at every civilian who attempted to escape. It is reported by
village chiefs that the SPLA shot to death more than hundred civilians
who tried to escape. All these reports were corroborated by the United
Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) after visiting the area.
It’s our duty to bring to the attention of the international community
that since the SPLA army embarked on fighting the rebel forces of Maj.
Gen. Peter Gatdet in April, the South Sudan’s government forces have
committed so many atrocities and crimes against the Bul Nuer civil
population which warrant international investigation. The
international community needs to know that when Maj. Gen. Peter Gatdet
rebelled against the Government of South Sudan, the SPLA army started
to target the Bul Nuer because he hailed from that clan. The
mistreatment of Bul Nuer civil population reached a deadly intensity
in the beginning of May when the SPLA army engaged itself in burning
villages they inhabited under the pretext that the villagers supported
the rebels.
As part of its policy to destroy the livelihoods of Bul Nuer, the SPLA
army assisted heavily armed Dinka cattle rustlers from neighboring
Warrap state to attack Mayom County rural areas between 12—20 May,
2011 and took more than 23,000 cattle. So many civilians were
displaced and left without any livestock to feed their children. In
all attacks conducted by armed Dinka militias from Warrap State, the
SPLA army assisted them instead to intervene to protect the civilians
because the Governor of Unity State ordered the army to punish the
entire Bul Nuer for the fact that Maj. Gen. Peter Gatdet hailed from
that clan. Besides, Lt. Gen. Taban Deng Gai, the Governor of Unity
State, rejected the request of Mayom County Commissioner for emergency
humanitarian aid to save the lives of civilians displaced by the SPLA
army and Dinka militias of Warrap State.
Excellencies,
Since the end of the 2nd World War, the international
community—through the international tribunals tasked to prosecute war
crimes—established a number of principles to bring to justice those
who perpetrated heinous crimes against civil populations. In the
Nuremberg trial, the international military tribunal established a
principle that war crimes are offences against customary international
law and as such are subject to universal jurisdiction. A UN
International Criminal Tribunal was established in 1990s in Arusha,
Tanzania, to hear cases arising from the atrocities carried out in
Rwandan genocide of 1994. Since then, it has become part of
international criminal law that the international community has a
responsibility to investigate genocide, torture, rape, murder, crimes
against humanity and breaches of the 1949 Geneva Convention.
The tactics the SPLA army is using in punishing the civil population
of Unity State is reminiscent of what the Rwandan government did prior
to 1994 genocide by punishing the Tutsi civilians as a result of
rebels’ advances. The SPLA army targeted the Bul Nuer clan civil
population because the leader of South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA) is
from that clan. This is exactly what the Rwandan government did after
the rebels of Rwanda Patriotic Front captured many garrisons from the
government.
The crimes the SPLA army had committed against the Bul Nuer civil
population so far are crimes against humanity and war crimes in
violation of the Geneva Convention. The attacks the SPLA launched
against innocent Bul civilians are widespread and systematic and are
aimed at targeting identifiable clan. They are not random acts of
violence as some quarters have been saying but systematic acts which
warrant international investigation because they meet qualification as
crimes against humanity that the international community has a
responsibility to investigate before it is too late.
Excellencies,
The purpose in which the international community established the
International Criminal Court (ICC) was to hold individuals accountable
for crimes against humanity which include extermination of civilians,
torture, rape, persecution on political, racial, national, ethnic,
cultural, religious or gender grounds. The SPLA army had committed
heinous crimes against Bul Nuer civil population which could be deemed
as crimes against humanity. Rome Statute of International Criminal
Court states in article seven that crimes against humanity include
torture; persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on
political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender;
imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in
violation of fundamental rules of international law; Attack directed
against any civilian population; and forcible transfer of population.
Article eight of the said statute also states that war crimes include
willful killing; willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury
to body or health; extensive destruction and appropriation of
property, not justified by military necessity and carried out
unlawfully and wantonly; intentionally directing attacks against the
civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking
direct part in hostilities; intentionally directing attacks against
civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives;
Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack
will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to
civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the
natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to
the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated; and
violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds,
mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.
Therefore, the South Sudan Nuer International Advocacy for Human
Rights (SSNIAHR) requests the international community to implement the
following to bring to justice those who committed war crimes against
the Bul Nuer population: 1. The UN Security Council (UNSC) must refer
the abuses the SPLA committed this year against the Bul Nuer civil
population to the prosecutor of the ICC. The Government of South Sudan
condoned and participated in the atrocities committed against the Bul
Nuer and could not be expected to bring to justice members of its
armed forces who committed crimes against humanity.
2. The ICC should investigate the role South Sudan President Salva
Kiir Mayardit played in the atrocities the SPLA army committed against
Bul Nuer civil population. As the Commander-in-Chief of the army, he
is responsible for ordering the SPLA to attack Bul Nuer and burn
several villages.
3. The ICC should investigate Lt. Gen. Nhial Deng Nhial, the Minister
of the SPLA Affairs, for May 20, 2011 burning to death of sixty five
children, elderly women and men in Mayom County, Unity State.
4. The ICC should also investigate Lt. Gen. James Hoth Mai,
Chief-of-staff of the SPLA army; Lt. Gen. Wilson Deng, Deputy
Chief-of-Operation; Maj. Gen. Gatduel Gatluak and Maj. Gen. Koang
Chuol Ran-leak for the burning of 8,000 homes and the SPLA army’s
deliberate killings of more than hundred civilians.
5. The ICC should investigate Governor of Unity State, Lt. Gen. Taban
Deng Gai, for ordering and encouraging the punishment of the entire
Bul Nuer clan including their livestock. Gov. Taban Deng is on record
for ordering the SPLA army to loot and destroy villages of civilians
who refused to be forcefully relocated. Moreover, he categorically
rejected the request of Mayom County Commissioner for emergency relief
aid so that Bul Nuer population would die of hunger and starvation for
refusing his orders to relocate to other sub-counties. The Governor
has come up with policies which are based on programs of realizing
clan cleansing in violation of international norms.
For contact: Chairman, Peter Gatkuoth Wadar Kuel Phone: (206)393 2164
Washington State, U.S. A Email: [email protected]
Secretary General, Gatluke Chuol Reat Phone: (226)789-2511 Ontario,
Canada Email: [email protected]
Secretary of Information, Chuker Nger Machar Phone: (719)217 3500
Colorado, U.S.A Email: [email protected]
CC: 1. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the ICC 2. Member Countries
of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) 3. The Royal
Norwegian Government 4. The Prime Minister of the Italian Government,
Rome. 5. UN Human Rights Council 6. Human Rights Watch 7. Amnesty
International
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