South Sudan won’t accept UN ‘intimidation’ after senior officials implicated in crimes

JUBA, MARCH 5, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan government on Tuesday claimed that it is being intimidated after a report by the United Nations proposed criminal investigations against senior government and military officials over human rights abuses.

In a report released on Monday, UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said Unity State governor Joseph Nguen Manytuil and SSPDF deputy chief of staff for administrator Gen. Thoi Chany along with the commissioner of Koch County should be investigated for human rights violations.

Entitled “State of impunity: the persistence of violence and human rights violations in South Sudan,” the 114-page report which is based upon its investigations in six states of South Sudan and in the neighboring region over the last 12 months said the officials were involved in extrajudicial killings and displacement of civilians in northern and southern Unity State last year.

But in response, South Sudan’s acting minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation Deng Dau decried the UN report and claimed that it is being intimidated by the world body, something it said the country won’t accept.

“They have now finished their investigation and I don’t want to talk about it because it will prejudice the report. On the report of Mayom, separate committee was also instituted and led by one of our judges and to our surprise, this is an intimidation, and you know it cannot work like that,” he said.

“You cannot just predetermine that it was so and so. The government of South Sudan is very committed to ensure that the human rights of our citizens are protected,” he added.

The senior government official further accused the UN of being biased on South Sudan and pointed finger at holdout opposition groups of being the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

“We have always said that the human rights commission are not fair, because when that happened, it was not only one side, but we also have the so-called non-state actors: the hold out groups,” he said.

“They come and attack and later claim it by themselves that they are the one who carried out the attack. So, this is intimidation, and the government will never accept this,” he added.