A contingent of Nepalese peacekeepers arrives in Juba, South Sudan from Haiti on Feb. 4 to support UNMISS, after an outbreak of violence in mid-December between pro- and anti-government forces. Credit: UN Photo/Isaac Billy

By Samuel Oakford
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 2014 (IPS)

An interim human rights report released by the beleaguered U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan is being tentatively hailed by rights groups and observers who have pressured the mission to be more transparent with its findings.

The report, delivered to the Security Council Friday and tweeted by the mission, UNMISS, on Sunday, is an overview of evidence collected by its roughly 80 human rights officers dating from the outbreak of violence on Dec. 15 through the end of January.“Malakal is deserted, with houses burned throughout and countless dead bodies strewn in the streets.” -- Carlos Francisco

Jehanne Henry, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, who returned last week from Bentiu and Rubkona, said she welcomed the report but stressed that in a country beset by impunity, regular reporting from the mission would serve as a powerful deterrent against atrocities.

“This is definitely a good step, but it is also clear that this is an interim report,” Henry told IPS, adding that the mission didn’t provide “any recommendations, fact-finding or legal analysis.”

“We would have wanted to see more regular public reporting that might have prevented some of this,” said Henry.

Based on more than 500 interviews with civilians and officials, the report contains accounts of mass ethnic-based killings, gang-rapes and torture carried out by government troops and various militias in opposition.

The report focused on allegations of human rights violations in what it called the four “red” states – Jonglei, Upper Nile, Unity and Central Equatoria – where battles were fiercest. It is clear, the authors wrote, “that civilians bore the brunt of much of the fighting and that gross violations of human rights were committed.”

The mission said it was also investigating reported mass grave sites in Juba, Bentiu and Rubkona.

Shortly after fighting broke out in Juba, the report states, “Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers were reported to have engaged in targeting killings of civilians of Nuer origin following house-to-house searches.”

Meanwhile, in the strategic oil city of Malakal, Dinka civilians were the alleged targets of defected Nuer SPLA and national police elements and of the so-called Nuer White Army.

The report came as a surprise to some observers who had expected nothing public until the end of April, when the mission delivers its full report to the Security Council.

But the interim document does not contain charges or name individuals under investigation. UNMISS human rights chief Ibrahim Wani defended that decision Wednesday, saying “the most important response to such allegations is obviously the credibility of the report itself.”

Outside of what it sends the Security Council, UNMISS has released publicly only two human rights reports in its nearly three-year history.

Ceasefire ignored

Both sides in the conflict appear to be ignoring the cessation of hostilities reached by negotiators in Addis Ababa on Jan. 23. Shortly after it was signed, government forces reportedly retook Leer, the hometown of rebel-leader Riek Machar, burning down much of the town and forcing thousands to flee.

On the day of the interim report’s release, the U.N. said it had found 50 bodies in Malakal and more at a local teaching hospital where the medical charity MSF said many had been shot through the head, execution-style.

“Malakal is deserted, with houses burned throughout and countless dead bodies strewn in the streets,” said Carlos Francisco, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Malakal.

On Sunday, the British NGO Oxfam was forced to evacuate all of its workers from the city.

Malakal has already changed hands at least five times and the ethnic makeup of the overflowing U.N. camp there largely depends on what army is currently laying siege to the city.

Last week, the U.N. base there reported that during gun battles outside its walls, inter-ethnic fighting broke out within the camp, resulting in the deaths of six and injuring more than 43. Though UNMISS denied it via Twitter, former BBC journalist Martin Plaut reported fighting took place at the Malakal camp not only between displaced persons but between local U.N. employees.

Pressure on UNMISS

On Feb. 11, a mission spokeswoman informed IPS the interim report wouldn’t be public but rather was “an internal report similar to a roadmap that will indicate trends based on initial findings and lead to” the late April Security Council Report.

Sources at the U.N. who were aware of the report’s delivery to the Security Council Friday said they were unsure until the last moment whether it would be made public. Though the report stresses its findings are still provisional, it does appear the mission changed its mind at some point over the past several weeks and decided to post the 21-page document publicly on its website.

UNMISS’ special representative Hilde Johnson has come under criticism for her perceived closeness with the government of President Salva Kiir. Human rights groups specifically alleged that the mission under her command should have been more vocal, via regular reporting, about human rights violations that foreshadowed the current conflict.

Hilde Johnson, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan and Head of the UN mission in the country (UNMISS), speaks at U.N. Day celebrations organized by UNMISS in South Sudanese capital Juba on Oct. 24, 2012. Credit: UN Photo/Isaac Billy

Observers close to the U.N. and UNMISS suggest that when the mission’s mandate is renewed – as it is expected to be – in July, a new special representative will likely be appointed. One diplomatic source who spoke with IPS anonymously said Johnson, feeling heat from U.N. headquarters over her bunker mentality and paralysis over reporting, is perhaps now less inclined to safeguard relations with a government more belligerent towards her by the day.

In a statement that accompanied the release, Johnson spoke of accountability and said “without bringing to justice the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes, revenge and impunity is likely to lead to a perpetual cycle of violence.”

“Some observers say she was too close to the government,” D’Souza told IPS.

“But in this position, it shows that they are working to be seen as more impartial – throughout the report, there were signs that SPLA soldiers were engaged in targeting of civilians, said D’Souza. “By being impartial, you come under pressure from one side or the other.”

Indeed, upon learning of it, a government spokesperson called the interim report “pure fabrication.”

Impunity

South Sudan’s 2011 independence failed to bring about a mechanism for south-on-south justice, allowing longstanding schisms in the ruling SPLM to metastasise into a body politic that only staved off collapse by rewarding rebel leaders with ministries and by applying the salve of oil money to succour displeased leaders.

Those schemes came to an abrupt halt on Dec 15, when Kiir, a Dinka, accused his former vice-president and longtime rebel comrade Machar of plotting a coup. Machar denied those charges but fled to take control of a mostly-Nuer rebel force, though his command over erratic groups with local grievances has been questioned throughout the conflict.

Soon after violence began, the African Union (AU) began piecing together a commission of inquiry into the conflict. Recent efforts by the AU to distance itself from the International Criminal Court (ICC) has led to suspicions that the inquiry is at least in part an effort to elude the spectacle of yet another African leader on trial in the Hague.

“You can probably argue that some countries want to sidestep the ICC, however the commission of inquiry is still a huge deal,” said D’Souza. “It is very important for the international community to open its own investigation to complement national initiative.”

“South Sudan has a history of impunity which perpetuates the cycle of intercommunal violence. It’s absolutely critical that UNMISS human rights officers are able to interview senior leadership of both the government and the opposition to analyse the command and control structure and see who should be held accountable within them.”

Salva Kiir Mayardit (in black hat), and Riek Machar (right), bid farewell to Sudanese President Omer Hassan A. Al-Bashir, who visited Juba, South Sudan, less than a week before the South’s referendum on self-determination. Credit: UN Photo/Tim McKulka

By Samuel Oakford
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 1 2014 (IPS)

Hours after forces ostensibly under Riek Machar’s command claimed victory in the strategic South Sudanese city of Bor, the former vice-president and once again rebel commander announced he would – after a week of postponement – send an envoy to upcoming peace dialogues in Addis Ababa with regional leaders and representatives of his one-time superior and comrade, President Salva Kiir.

Tuesday had been the deadline put forth by the regional body IGAD for Machar’s troops to lay down their arms and abide by the ceasefire agreement they formulated during talks in Nairobi without any rebel input."Factions rubbed against each other then cut a deal with one another, but in the past there was a bigger enemy in the North. Now they just have each other." -- Simon Adams

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, an ally of Kiir, has stationed troops at Juba’s airport, and Monday appeared to threaten deployment of the Ugandan army to defeat Machar if he did not step down.

“We gave Riek Machar some four days to respond and if he doesn’t we shall have to go for him,” said Museveni.

Reports of the government’s defeat or retreat in Bor capped several days of dramatic but erratic reporting centring on a group of up to 25,000 Nuer ‘youth’ – known as the “White Army” for their practice of rubbing ash over their bodies – who had marched on the city on behalf of Machar – though even that allegiance wasn’t entirely clear.

Machar is an ethnic Neur, Kiir a Dinka. The two leaders were militarily united during the Second Sudanese Civil War that lasted until 2005 – a war that killed over two million – but their ties had frayed since Southern Sudan voted for independence in 2011.

In July, Kiir sacked Machar and several cabinet members in a move widely seen as a power grab. Yet worried about stability in the country, Kiir suffered little reprimand from an international community that – outside of oil revenue – in effect funds many parts of the government.

Machar has denied Kiir’s allegations that a Dec. 15 skirmish at the presidential palace between Dinka and Nuer army factions was a coup attempt, though immediately after the confrontation he fled the capital to administer rebel forces that materialised almost instantaneously from army deserters and smaller militias.

Kiir has publically ruled out any kind of power-sharing agreement with Machar. “If you want power, you don’t rebel,” he told the BBC. “You go through the process.”

Information deficit

But at the U.N. on Tuesday, the secretary-general’s spokesperson could not confirm reports that Machar was willing to lay down arms. And with the conflict still festering, over 70,000 have fled the ongoing battles in Bor.

In a statement on the violence, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay cited “mass extrajudicial killings, the targeting of individuals on the basis of their ethnicity and arbitrary detentions.”

In the majority Dinka capital during the days after the palace clash, members of the national army were seen testing Nuers with Dinka phrases before rounding up and later murdering some of those who failed. Dinka elsewhere in the country told similar stories after surviving attempts on their lives at the hands of Neurs.

“We have discovered a mass grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly at least two other mass graves in Juba,” wrote Pillay.

The number of U.N. peacekeepers in the country is set to increase after an emergency Security Council vote last week approved an additional 5,500 peacekeepers – brought from U.N. missions in other parts of the world –  bringing the total “blue helmets” to 12,500. That process, U.N. under secretary-general for peacekeeping operations Hervé  Ladsous told reporters, could take up to three weeks.

But the speed at which events have played out – within days of the Dec. 15 clash at the presidential palace, oil fields were suddenly the site of raging tank battles – raises questions about just how aware the international community was of the spectre of civil war and how far behind they are on Machar and Kiir’s bloody chess match.

By the time the new peacekeepers arrive, the latest spasm of violence that has claimed over 1,000 lives may be over, but questions over Machar’s calculus and the viability of South Sudan’s democracy and civil society will linger.

“Did he [Machar] really launch a coup or is this just a deadly and ugly eruption of the power struggle that has been simmering since July?” asked Simon Adams, executive director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. “Did he launch it because there was no way he could engage politically any longer?”

Adams says Machar couldn’t possibly have expected support from regional powers and knew his military resources would quickly dwindle.

“If he can hold one or two states – Unity State or parts, then maybe he hopes he can re-negotiate his way back into government,” Adams told IPS. “But I suspect too much blood has been spilled for that.”

Machar’s simultaneous attack on Bor and his tacit agreement to send a peace mediator to Addis-Ababa suggests his calculus never included control of the country but was part of a strategic political power play, its mode familiar to local observers.

“History is important – power blocs and dangerous rivalries were part of how the SPLA and SPLM worked in the past. Factions rubbed against each other then cut a deal with one another, but in the past there was a bigger enemy in the North. Now they just have each other,” Adams said.

Independence gave way to a single party state whose power relations tend to mimic those of the insurgent armies that the country’s political leaders spent most of their lives fighting in.

Whether Machar launched a coup, then, while vital to a familiar narrative of events, is perhaps secondary to its context, says Florent Geel, co-head of the International Federation for Human Rights.

“Kiir is very authoritarian and direct, so Machar wanted to get power,” Geel told IPS.

Geel says because the government is made up of an uneasy continuation of a military coalition, disagreements are common among the group of fair-weather allies still accustomed to resolving border disputes via proxy wars with the North.

“It’s not just ethnic, it’s political,” Geel said.

In the meantime, the U.N., the media and countless Western NGOs are holed up in UNMISS bases, providing vital aid to and coverage of those inside, but unable to assist or learn about the at least 100,000 displaced Sudanese who have not been able to seek refuge.

A spokesperson for U.N. peacekeeping told IPS “protection work is the focus of UNMISS military peacekeepers. Our peacekeepers in South Sudan are not engaged in the conflict.”

Compared to the recent U.N.-sanctioned  and French-led missions in neighbouring Central African Republic – discussion of which has been subsumed by South Sudan at U.N. press conferences –  as well as Mali earlier in 2013, the U.N. and NGOs on the ground appear hesitant to engage belligerents or call out those who have committed crimes against humanity.

“NGOS invested so much in the success of South Sudan that some might have ended up with rose-tinted glasses on when it came to the harsh reality there,” said Adams.

This, he says, has fostered a feeling of rampant impunity that was never addressed in the south as it was attempted via the International Criminal Court and elsewhere, in the north.

“If those responsible for atrocities are known then the U.N. needs to be naming names. There needs to be a change in the posture of the mission,” Adams said.

“This is now primarily a protection of civilians mission,” he added. “The U.N. should not sit idly. If necessary, fire on perpetrators regardless of their ties. The U.N. needs to be an active protector, not a silent witness.”

Sudanese women are not exempt from the government’s repressive tactics and are increasingly targeted for speaking out against Sudan’s government. Credit: Zeinab Mohammed Salih/IPS

By Reem Abbas
KHARTOUM, Jul 2 2013 (IPS)

More and more of Sudan’s female politicians and rights activists are being arrested and detained in the government’s clampdown on opposition political parties.

Asma Ahmed, a lawyer and member of the banned Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N), was released on Jun. 14 after a five-week detention. She believes that the Sudanese authorities are increasingly targeting women because they have become more active in the political and social arena in recent years.

“The targeting of women activists is because we are continuing to send our messages effectively. If we weren’t, we would not be detained … but detentions will not make women less keen to continue activism,” Ahmed told IPS.

The rebel SPLM–N was banned in 2011 when it took up arms against government forces in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

“My house was watched for a few days before my detention. My family was told by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) officers that I had been summoned, and so I went to the interrogation in Khartoum north and didn’t return home that day,” Ahmed said.

According to international rights watchdog Amnesty International, Sudan’s 2010 National Security Act, “provides agents of the security services with wide powers of arrest and detention. Torture and other ill-treatment remain widespread.”

In April, Human Rights Watch said in a statement that “in recent months the Sudanese government has increased repression of political and civil society groups. The authorities shut down four civil society groups in December, accusing them of receiving foreign funds, have also closed down Nuba cultural groups, and recently re-instated restrictions on the media.”

It is unclear how many women remain in detention. The Sudanese Council for Defending Rights and Freedoms, an independent body of human rights defenders, lawyers and politicians, stated that the SPLM–N alone has 600 detainees, a significant number of whom are women.

Women are not exempt from the scare tactics used by security services. The events culminating in Entisar Al-Agali’s arrest are almost like a Hollywood action film. She was driving home from a meeting on Jan. 7 when a car belonging to the NISS began following her until she reached Africa Road in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

“They tried to stop my car, but I was speeding and trying to get away. They caught up with me and hit my car from the back and, because I was trying to avoid an accident, I stopped the car,” Al-Agali told IPS.

Al-Agali had returned from Kampala, Uganda where she had been taking part in the talks that led to the drafting of the New Dawn Charter, a document signed by Sudanese opposition political parties, as well as rebel groups and civil society, that deals with the methods to be used to bring down the Sudanese regime and set up a transitional government in the war-torn country.

“I spent 87 days in Omdurman Women’s Prison, 75 days of which were in solitary confinement,” said Al-Agali, who is a leading member of the opposition Socialist Unionist Nasserist Party.

Al-Agali was the only woman to be detained after the signing of the New Dawn Charter on Jan. 6, which saw a wave of arrests of political leaders. She is, however, not the only woman to spend weeks or months in detention in the past two years.

In November 2012, 34 alleged members of SPLM–N, most of whom are government employees, were detained in Kadugli, the capital of the embattled state of Southern Kordofan. On Apr. 26, 14 were released, but the 20 others continue to be held in detention in Kadugli Prison.

Khadija Mohamed Badr was one of the detainees released and she now stays with her family in Khartoum.

“She was severely hurt and broke two spinal discs as she slipped while in detention. She is now paying for treatment with her own money,” an activist who is trying to raise financial assistance for Badr, and who wished to remain anonymous for fear of his safety, told IPS.

Meanwhile, the government National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been trying to establish itself as an advocacy body for political detainees. But Abdelmoniem Mohamed, a human rights lawyer who has monitored the NHRC’s role in other cases, told IPS that it has not been responsive to cases of political oppression, such as that of Jalila Khamis.

“The commission asked us to submit cases to them, cases of political detainees. But I am sceptical as they were slow to act on Khamis’s case,” he told IPS.

Khamis, a teacher and human rights activist, was detained in March 2012 for a video she recorded on the war in her homeland, the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan. Fighting between the Sudanese army and the rebel SPLM–N has been ongoing in the region since June 2011. Khamis had faced life imprisonment but was released in January after a long trial.

“I was subjected to long interrogations, the worst time was when they told me that they would kill my son. This was when I was diagnosed with arterial hypertension,” Khamis told IPS. Although released, she continues to be monitored by state security.

While it is difficult to say how many female political activists are in prison, one activist who preferred to remain anonymous told IPS:  “When the family of a detainee in Kosti (a city south of Sudan’s capital Khartoum) visited her in detention, they were given a long list of women’s names to choose from. This means that there are many women detainees we don’t know about.”

Fatima Ghazzali, a pro-democracy activist and journalist working for the political section of Al-Jareeda newspaper said that women were at the forefront of the calls for democracy and freedom in Sudan.

“It is women who are the majority of internally displaced in this country, they bear the brunt of war. Women suffer the most under authoritarian regimes, that is why it does not surprise me to see that women are more keen to have democracy in Sudan,” Ghazzali told IPS, adding that only democracy would give women their full rights and protect them from security forces.

The escalating participation of women activists in recent protests and campaigns has even made the police take notice of women’s participation in calls for democracy, she said.

“They said that women and journalists are always there, always present at protests,” said Ghazzali, who spent time in jail in 2011 for an article she wrote on the gang rape of a female protestor in detention.