African Union must release South Sudan report, rights groups say

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/04/african-union-report-south-sudan-delayed

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The African Union (AU) has left victims in the lurch by shelving a report into massacres, rapes and other crimes carried out during South Sudan’s civil war, human rights groups say, urging the body to immediately publish the findings.

The AU’s commission of inquiry on South Sudan, headed by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, was expected to brief the body’s peace and security council (PSC) at a meeting in Addis Ababa last week, but the PSC decided to defer the commission’s report indefinitely, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

The AU has compromised its commitment to justice for serious crimes and cast doubt on its engagement with its own – and the first of its kind – commission of inquiry, HRW said.

“The people and partners of South Sudan have been waiting for the AU report to help bring justice for the grave crimes of the past year,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at HRW. “By shelving the report, the AU has left the people of South Sudan in the lurch.”

The commission was set up in March to investigate the civil war, which erupted in December 2013, destroying hopes of a fresh start in the world’s newest nation. The fighting has cost at least 10,000 lives, and been marked by atrocities including rape, massacres of civilians and killings based on ethnicity.

Lack of accountability can embolden people to commit further crimes and undermine respect for the rule of law

On Monday, South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir, and rebel commander and former vice-president Riek Machar signed yet another ceasefire agreement, meant to bring them closer to a comprehensive peace deal that would lay out the details of a power-sharing interim government.

The agreement was reached in Addis Ababa, where talks were being held under the aegis of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), the regional body overseeing negotiations. HRW said Machar and Kiir agreed to end fighting by 5 March and form a transitional government.

Igad has said it will punish those who violate the agreement, but previous ceasefires have been repeatedly breached.

The conflict started when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup. In the fighting that followed, Machar drew support mainly from the Nuer group to which he belongs, while many Dinkas backed Kiir. About 1.5 million people in the oil-producing but poor country have been forced to flee their homes.

In a report last August, HRW said both sides had committed “extraordinary acts of cruelty” that amounted to war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity.

It said serious crimes against both Nuer and Dinka communities during Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war, before South Sudan gained independence in 2011, were never addressed, creating conditions for the latest conflict.

The concern now is that a similar failure to address these latest abuses could sow the seeds of future violence. On Friday, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe took over as chair of the AU, and said the union needed to work harder to achieve sustainable peace on the continent.

HRW said some AU officials appeared reluctant to consider the report because they believed it could upset the peace talks. “The risks of trading away justice are significant – lack of accountability can embolden people to commit further crimes and undermine respect for the rule of law,” HRW said.

David K Deng, research director for the South Sudan Law Society (SSLS), wrote in an article for African Arguments that consideration of the report at the Addis Ababa meeting was deferred because of fears that it would jeopardise the peace process.

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“Both Igad and the warring parties have emphasised repeatedly that people responsible for atrocities will not be permitted to serve in the transitional government,” he wrote.

“To say in one breath that people responsible for atrocities will not be allowed to serve in government and in the next that people suspected of having committed atrocities cannot be named for fear of undermining the peace process demonstrates a troubling lack of consistency on Igad’s part,” he added.

Amnesty International and South Sudanese civil society groups have also urged the AU to publish the report. “Not only is justice a right of victims, accountability could serve as a powerful deterrent to those who think they can kill, rape and pillage with no consequence,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty’s Africa director for research and advocacy.

Amnesty and the other groups said the AU should consider setting up a hybrid court to allow South Sudanese and specially trained foreign investigators and judges to continue the investigations carried out by the five-member commission of inquiry and to try those suspected of crimes.

“Given the pervasive weaknesses in the administration of justice in South Sudan, credible and independent investigations and prosecutions will require robust international involvement,” said Drissa Traoré, vice-president of FIDH, the International Federation for Human Rights.

Several civil society organisations in South Sudan, including the SSLS, have signed a petition calling for the report to be published.

“Since the outbreak of violence … despite the announcement of several government investigations into abuses, not a single person has been held accountable for the tens of thousands of civilian deaths, rampant sexual violence and recruitment of children by parties to the conflict,” the petition said.

“Many South Sudanese provided information to the commission of inquiry at great personal risk, and to withhold the final report would be a great disservice to them.”

HRW’s Bekele said South Sudanese people believed justice could help end cycles of violence. “The AU has taken precious time and resources to document the crimes and make recommendations on accountability. But this effort can do little good if it does not see the light of day,” he said.