The untold story of Israeli military exports to South Sudan and crimes
against humanity
Jun. 27 Featured, Uncategorized 5 comments
By: Adv. Itai Mack and Idan Landau (translation: Einat Adar), JUN/27/2015, SSN;
Since South Sudan’s independence, Israel has continuously sold it
weapons, military training, homeland security and surveillance
technology. The only problem? They are being used to commit war crimes
and potential crimes against humanity.
We now know that Israel sold weapons to Rwanda in the 1990s as
genocide was being committed throughout the country. The details of
these dealings are still being kept secret and an appeal (Hebrew) to
make them public is currently being examined in the High Court of
Justice. No lessons, it seems, were learned from that affair.
For the last 18 months a bloody civil war has been raging in another
African country, South Sudan, including documented war crimes and
potential crimes against humanity. The international media is covering
this war on a daily basis.
The Israeli media, on the other hand, reported about it during the
first few months but has since become silent, even though atrocities
are still being perpetrated.
This silence probably has a good reason: high-ranking officials in the
government and the security industry are selling weapons, military
training, homeland security and surveillance technology to factions in
South Sudan. Any publication on these activities can seriously
embarrass them.
Since the 1960’s Israel has been fighting a secret war in South Sudan
by supporting the rebels’ struggle to break free from Khartoum’s
tyranny. Israel’s support does not reflect its humanistic values or
solidarity with a just and legitimate fight for freedom, but rather is
the result of various strategic interests in the region.
In 2011 a referendum was held in South Sudan following massive
pressure from the international community. Ninety-nine percent of
residents voted in favor of breaking away from Khartoum, and on July
9th of the same year South Sudan became an independent country.
The State of Israel was one of the first countries to recognize the
new state, and in 2011 Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of South Sudan,
came to Israel on official visit.
For Israel, an independent South Sudan was a golden opportunity to
further its security and economic interests in the area, and it
subsequently made hefty investments in civil and military
infrastructure there. The relationship between the two countries is
exceptional even when compared to Israel’s close ties with other
African countries, showing some signs of sponsorship.
This special relationship should also be understood in the context of
regional power struggles. The local conflict between Sudan and South
Sudan is sponsored by Iran and Israel respectively. As Iran reinforced
its ties with Muslim Sudan, Israel strengthened its relations with
Christian South Sudan, which also provides it with oil.
Two-and-a-half years ago Israel allegedly bombed an Iranian owned arms
factory in Khartoum; a year ago the IDF intercepted a ship carrying
munitions from Sudan to Gaza; and just this month an Israeli drone was
reportedly shot down in Sudan. It is evident that Iran and Israel are
fighting a proxy war through their African allies.
The only question is whether this semi-imperial strategy can, in any
way, justify supporting South Sudan forces who perpetrate war crimes
and crimes against humanity. No Israeli strategic interest, real or
imaginary, can exempt it from the moral and legal responsibility to
prevent the sale of any weapons that may be used for such purposes.
South Sudan’s celebration of independence sadly turned into one of the
worst tragedies of our times. Since mid-December 2013 a civil war has
been raging in South Sudan between opposing ethnic and political
groups — a continuation of the bloody civil war that led to the
country’s independence after 22 years.
According to the latest reports, 50,000 people were killed, 2 million
people were displaced or became refugees, and 2.5 million people are
at risk of starvation due to the war. Human rights organizations and
the United Nations estimate that 12,000 child soldiers are fighting in
South Sudan.
All parties involved in the fighting, and especially the government
and its allied militias, are implicated in war crimes, crimes against
humanity and severe violations of human rights.
Neither side is able to bring the war to an end, and no ethnic group
has a clear majority in the country. The Dinka tribe, which is
currently in control of the government, is only 35 percent of the
population. Some of the opposition fighters are former security forces
personnel who defected to the other side, taking their weapons and
military training with them, thus making it harder for government
forces to defeat them.
For these reasons, the government decided on an alternative strategy:
mass murder, systematic rape of other ethnic groups, and abuse of
citizens identified with the opposition. As long as weapons continue
to stream into the country, the government has no interest in reaching
a compromise, and it continues to cling to a false hope of defeating
their enemies in the field.
This situation led European countries to declare a weapons embargo on
South Sudan and the U.S. to suspend its military aid. There were also
attempts to pass a similar embargo resolution in the UN Security
Council.
So far these attempts have been unsuccessful due conflicts and
arguments between the members of the council, as well as the fear that
the rebels will defeat the government forces.
Despite the political difficulties involved in agreeing on an embargo
resolution, the gravity of the situation in South Sudan is clear to
all. On March 3 of this year the Security Council adopted
U.S.-sponsored Resolution 2206, giving both sides an ultimatum
threatening a weapons embargo and other sanctions if the fighting is
not ended.
Despite the world’s reaction, Israel’s secret war in South Sudan
continues according to reports and information provided by human
rights activists who have been, or still are, in South Sudan.
Since the country’s independence, Israel has continuously sent it
weapons, training government forces and providing various
security-related technologies. There is also a cooperation between the
two countries’ secret services, and Israeli entities have established
an internal control and surveillance system in South Sudan, which they
continue to maintain.
The current Israeli involvement in South Sudan is exceptional in the
history of Israeli military exports. This goes way beyond greed.
Israel is currently fighting over the viability of a project that it
has invested much in over the years — a project whose failure may
damage its credibility in the eyes of other dictators and regimes that
receive military aid from Israel.
An official publication by the Ministry of Defense from November 2014
(almost a year after the beginning of the civil war in South Sudan)
boasts (Hebrew) about the success of the defense export department at
Cyber Security exhibition, visited by 70 delegations from around the
world, including South Sudan. There are testimonies that the South
Sudan military is using the Israeli Galil ACE rifle.
Eighteen months before the outbreak of the civil war, a Sudanese
newspaper reported on an airlift from Israel to South Sudan, providing
rockets, military equipment and even African mercenaries (after
training). The provisions still continue to flow. A South Sudanese
delegation will visit (Hebrew) an Israeli armament exhibition to be
held next week in Tel Aviv.
Think about it for a minute: a country in which crimes against
humanity are perpetrated at this very moment, using foreign weapons
and under a complete weapons embargo by U.S. and Europe, sends a
military acquisitions delegation to Israel and is being welcomed with
open arms.
Both international law and basic human morality forbid the sale of
weapons or other military aid which may serve in war crimes and crimes
against humanity. In the past, due to the political conflicts of the
Cold War, the international community failed to fulfill this
obligation, but since the 1990s it has been transformed into decisive
law in U.S. and Europe, as well as among international conventions and
international institutions such as the UN and international courts.
Israel has no real way of ensuring the weapons it sells to South Sudan
are not used to massacre civilians or threaten women as they are being
raped by soldiers and militia fighters.
Furthermore, there is no way to ensure that the training of security
forces is not used for the murder and torture of civilians and that
the technology it provides is not used for persecuting citizens for
their political or ethnic affiliations — not to mention supporting
horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity — unless it completely
stops all military and security-related exports to this country.
It is important to clarify that international law also forbids the
sale of technologies and devices that “don’t shoot” if they may be
used in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On March 12 this year, Adv. Itai Mack gave an interview about military
exports to South Sudan on the radio program “According to Foreign
Media” (Hebrew), which is aired on the “All For Peace” radio station
(beginning 47:50). Mack revealed more details about Israel’s
involvement in providing weapons and training to South Sudan forces.
Following these findings, Adv. Mack appealed to the Ministry of
Defense to stop military exports to the country. The appeal,
unsurprisingly, was rejected.
MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) is currently trying to break the seal of
silence, by demanding that the Ministry of Defense cease all military
exports to South Sudan immediately. The demand was accompanied by an
expert opinion prepared by Adv. Mack, which details the factual and
legal aspects of the issue (you can find the request and opinion in
Hebrew here).
The Israeli public must join this request. And the time to do it is right now.
Idan Landau is an Israeli academic at Ben-Gurion University. This post
was originally published in Hebrew on Idan’s blog, Don’t Die a Fool.
It is reposted here with the author’s permission.
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5 Comments
Joana Adams
June 27, 2015 at 11:29 pm
The Israelis, will never sell arms o South Sudan if Kiir did not
lie to them that Khartoum was threatening the South. Money and lots of
it have been changing hands in Addis Ababa and Southernrs have
remained quiet about it.
The point is if South Sudan government is going all over the world
bribing, and politically prostituting just to remain in power this is
the real problem.
We can castigate all of the world leaders supporting or perceived
to be supporting the evil and wicked regime in Juba, but if we do not
want to touch Mayardit and believe he is a victim, even a hero, then
we must bear the consequences of Kiir’s actions. It is Israel today,
and tomorrow, it is Iran or Russia, as long as we continue to miss the
target. There is a space to blame others, but we must start with
putting Kiir on the spot light, after all he is the presidentof the
republic and commander in chief of the National army and the creator
of the notorious unconstitutional gelweng, kony beny, or tiger
nonsensence militia that has committed genocide and continues o
terrorise our people, murder, rape, and mass. murder them on dialy
basis.
Joana
Reply
Kondokoro
June 27, 2015 at 11:57 pm
you are a traitor
what are you trying to mint here?
it dont work if you think by spiiling our national security
secrets you will benefit from it
you are a looser
Reply
Eli
June 28, 2015 at 7:01 am
Mr Landau and Adv. Mack;
Thank you for reporting about this gross human rights violation in
South Sudan by the South Sudanese government being supported by
Israel. Historically, since 1955 at tne beginning of the first civil
war by then between the nortn and south Sudan, Israel has stood with
the people of South Sudan and we sincerely thank Israel for that, at
that time yes we needed Israel’s military and logistical supports as
we were fighting for our independence. However after the independence
Israel wanted to solidify its base in South Sudan so as to have closer
watch over Islamic north as well to monitor Iran’s activities in the
neighborhoods. That wasn’t a problem for us either, because “the enemy
of one’s enemy is a friend”, by Mandela. The problem now is that
Southerners are killing one another, and it is easy to conclude that
why are same people killing each other? The answer to this question is
a lot more complicated than it looks. What Israel need to do is to
restrict its supply and to make sure its arms and military logistics
are only used to deter the North, but off course that is impractical
to monitor, as the Juba government will use anything at their dispense
to crush the 18 months old rebellion, they have already used cluster
bombs through Ugandan people defense force, what else could prevent
them? So the only way for Israel to not be called a partner in (
genocides) crime and crimes against humanity is to at once stop all
military support to the murderous regime of dictator Salva Kirr, the
current president whose term is about to expire on July 9, 2015.
Israelis out of all people should be the ones to stand against
genocide, the Holocaust memories are still fresh in this generation’s
minds. Peace loving people all around the world stood up and condemned
the brutality of the Nazis during the Holocaust against Jews, and so
must the Israelis stand against genocides in South Sudan.
Eli Wani
Reply
Choromke Jas
June 28, 2015 at 8:09 am
The State of Israel is held in great respect and awe by many South
Sudanese. Some do so because of their reading of the Bible, others
because of the perceived role Israel played in the first war known as
Anya Nya; first led by Fr Saturnino Ohure and later by Joseph Lagu.
Both Ohure and Lagu are from the Equatoria Region of South Sudan.
Ironically, the only anti-Israeli action by a South Sudanese was a
vote in support of the Palestinian State at the UN General assembly
some time ago. This action was taken by Francis Deng, the South Sudan
rep at the UN, a Dinka. Deng received his instruction from Kiir, the
leader of South Sudan to vote in the manner he did. If the opinion in
the article is true, then the Israeli government is supplying arms to
a tribal government which hostile to it.
The recent involvement of official Israeli in South Sudan started
in 2005, according to information I have gathered. Two Israelis
travelled to the South Sudan at that time to warn Dr Riek machar, the
present leader of the armed opposition, of his impending
assassination. Clearly, the two emissaries were from the secret
service. Two weeks after their visit, Dr John Garang, the former
leader of the SPLA died in a helicopter crash. A week later, the duo
returned to South Sudan from Isreal to say, cryptically, that “one
door has shut, the other one opens” about the death of Dr Garang. To
cut a long story short, it was through Dr Machar that the Israelis
were introduced to the SPLA and the rest, as they say, is history. One
then would expect the Israelis to sympathize with their former host,
Dr Machar, against a recalcitrant Dinka chauvinist who voted against
Israel at the UN.
Reply
False Millionaire
June 28, 2015 at 10:06 am
Welcome to the world of reality.
There isn’t any hold barred on earth where there is money.Italian
mafias burn churches and threaten to lay waste the pop and the
faithful if they ever appear as abstacles to prosperity of criminal
businesses.
Respectful mothers sell their daughters’ verginities to wealthy
tourists in Mombassa.
Also in Mombassa,20 dollars is more than enough for a hit man to
shoot dead for you your sweet hearts’ lover.
As of today,you can sell your kidney for less than 1000 dollars to
a needy patient since supply is far greater than demand.
The truth is,in RSS money has more value than human lives for the
SPLM/A elites and as for low moral masses.
That’s exactly the origin of the power struggle that led to the
events of 15 December 2013 and the following civil war.
The protagonists are willing to go any length to obtain arms and
military advantages.
Human lives must be sacrificed for any possibility of victory that
will assure to the victors the control of economic resources that will
guarantee the flow of money at the end.
It’s only naive to criticise Israel for doing businss in arms.
Come buy sugar from me and I wouldn’t give a damn if you have
intention to produce soft drinks or alcohol to destroy the health of
drunkards.
Better find another subject for your moral lessons sir.The guilty
are those who use the arms to kill innocent people in RSS!!!
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