Government Rubbishes Calls For Sanctions Against Kiir The government has rubbished a report by the human rights watch released yesterday, asking the UN security council to impose sanctions on 9 army commanders, including President Salva Kiir and former first vice President Dr. Riek Machar. 02 August 2017
By Jale Richard JUBA, 02 August 2017 [Gurtong]-“This is a very terrible request, instead of rewarding the President for having done his best to make sure things return to normalcy, they want the president to vanish, which is not appropriate in the spirit of preparing the country for peace,” said Ateny Wek Ateny, the Presidential Spokesperson. Ateny added that the report is not a new report, because it is a replica of the old report of last year. “It is only cut and paste,” he said. Ateny said the report was prepared by those who do not know South Sudan, as they claim in Pajok there are more than 50,000 people which he termed ridiculous. “We reject this report in totality because it is biased, and it was arrived at through motivated interviews that were done in the refugee camps,” he said. Human rights watch said based on evidence reported publicly since 2013, including the current report and other Human Rights Watch reports, UN and NGO have reported on serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law in South Sudan since the conflict started. The report said President Salva Kiir, opposition leader Riek Machar, and former SPLA chief of general staff Paul Malong Awan must be sanctioned. Other commanders who should be sanctioned from the government side include: Lt. Gen. Johnson Juma Okot, formerly in charge of the SPLA division 6 troops accused of abuses in the Equatorias and now Deputy Commander of Ground Forces. Lt. Gen. Bol Akot, who was in charge of the Gudele and Mio Saba areas of Juba at the time of killings of Nuer civilians in December 2013, formerly in command of the SPLA commandos accused of abuses in Western Equatoria, currently director of the South Sudan National Police Service. Lt. Gen. Marial Nour Jok, head of the SPLA Military Intelligence since April 2014, who is the superior of officers accused of arbitrary detentions, torture and enforced disappearances in the Equatorias and Wau regions. Lt. Gen. Attayib “Taitai” Gatluak, formerly head of SPLA Division 4 accused of abuses in the Unity region in 2015, and now in charge of the SPLA Division 5, accused of abuses in Wau late 2015; Maj. Gen. Matthew Puljang, who commanded forces accused of abuses in the Unity region in 2015 and forcefully recruited children. >From the opposition, Gen. Johnson Olony, an opposition commander accused of forced recruitment of fighters, including children, in the Upper Nile region. “The individual criminal responsibility of these three men should also be the subject of investigation, all three being top commanders in position to give orders and with prima facie effective control over their forces which have been implicated in serious violations and abuses since the beginning of the conflict,” reads part of the report. The report also requests the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on South Sudan’s territory directing the existing UN panel of experts to monitor and report back on implementation of the embargo. Impose additional targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on individuals implicated in violations of the arms embargo or serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. It also calls for the prompt deployment of the Rapid Protection Forces, authorized on August 12, 2016, to bolster the mission’s protection capacity. Posted in: Home -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14or4tPuP9%3DQRXu3TwV%2BrtsVXwMdrKK70iLamMYbK9wK6BA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
