South Sudan Soldiers Suffocate Victims to Death
Worst Humanitarian Crisis
South
Sudan has experienced turmoil since December 2013 following the fall out of President
Salva Kirr and his former Deputy Riech Machar. Since then the youngest state in
the world has known no peace and the two factions went into active violence and
many other opportunistic fighters joined in. The conflict has since been internationalized
and the search for peace still continues. It is clear that violence is still
going on in many parts of the country despite many ceasefire agreements. Of
concern is the level of crimes and violence that have been witnessed in South
Sudan. As we speak the country has the worst humanitarian crisis in the world
today.
UN Report on Violence
The
U.N. report released just under a week ago notes serious violations of
international humanitarian law, gross violations of international human rights
law and human rights abuses as perpetrated by all parties to the conflict in
South Sudan. These include attacks on innocent civilians, rape, arbitrary
detentions and abductions, all of which may amount to war crimes and/or crimes
against humanity. The report indicates that civilians were singled out on the
basis of their ethnicity, and shot on the streets, in their homes, while
seeking sanctuary in churches and hospitals, and in official and unofficial places
of deprivation of liberty.
Sexual Violence
Rape
remains one of the most rampant crimes prevalent of the ongoing militarism in
the country. Indeed a lot more cases of rape go unreported. According to the UN
report the actions of rape by the South Sudanese government, its military and
its allies were particularly egregious last year. The UN documented more than 1,300
cases of rape in one of South Sudan's 10 states, Unity, between April and
September (one month after the peace framework accord was reached). Witnesses
said that some women were killed for resisting, others for simply looking into
their rapist's eyes.
One
woman recounted being stripped naked and raped by five soldiers along a road
and in front of her children; then got raped in bushes by three more men; then
to come back and find her children missing. Another recalled being tied to a
tree after her husband was killed, then being forced to watch 10 soldiers rape
her 15-year-old daughter. During Sudan People's Liberation Army's (SPLA's) attacks, the report added, using the
acronyms for South Sudan's army, "women and girls were considered a
commodity and were taken along with civilian property as the soldiers moved
through the villages.
Suffocated to Death
There
wasn't just sexual violence. The UN report also documented stories of civilians
being hanged from trees, cut to pieces and burned alive. Amnesty International
has also reported on the incident where 60 cattle-keepers were taken by South
Sudanese soldiers who confiscated their livestock, tied them up, then locked
them in a steel container with no windows.
The
container was brought to a former Catholic
Church compound in the town of Leer, where South Sudanese troops guarded it and
all men died within one or two days of being detained, with the exception of
one survivor.
Mukura Massacre
The
story of suffocating people to death reminds me of what the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) did to some poor villagers in a place called Mukura in north-eastern Uganda where in 1989 they suffocated over 80 people in a train
wagon. The people who were suffocated were poor villagers in an area that was
perceived as rebellious against the Kampala administration even as President Yoweri Museveni sought to stem his authority and consolidate power following the 1986 military
take over from led by him. The President has since casually apologized to the
people of Mukura and commanded the UPDF to build a monument in a memory of
those who were innocently killed through suffocation.
The
incident at Mukura and the recent one in South Sudan have many similarities.
Given the fact that the one in Mukura was executed by the UPDF and the fact
that the UPDF have been supported the SLPA soldiers allied to President Kirr in
South Sudan, I may be forgiven to imagine that the UPDF exported this nasty
tactic to their counterparts in South Sudan. It also means that the tactic of suffocation
to death is still being used to date and it is a cause for alarm. I mean Hitler
used this tactic in the 40s, the UPDF used it in 1989 and the SPLA has used it
in 2015? We must get worried enough.
South Sudan Soldiers Suffocate Victims to Death
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
March 18, 2016
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