Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Calls for United Nations Boss to Resign in South Sudan

TUESDAY 11 MARCH 2014

Calls for UNMISS boss to resign after weapons seizure

March 10, 2014 (RUMBEK) - The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has faced heavy criticism after security agents intercepted a weapons shipment in Lakes state, with calls for boss Hilde Johnson to stand down.

Officials seized an assortment of firearms and military uniforms in Lakes state capital Rumbek on Thursday after intercepting 11 UN trucks en route to Unity state.

UNMISS said the cargo was transported due to labelling error and was intended for its Ghanaian peacekeepers recently deployed as additional forces in the country following the mid-December outbreak of violence.

However, authorities allege the items were being transported secretly to aid rebels fighting in Unity state, and have now instituted an investigation into the matter.

“There were all type of weapons, ammunition and blankets. Those items were on route to Unity state and rebel-controlled areas,” a senior military official told Sudan Tribune, without providing further details.

In a press statement released after the incident, UNMISS said that the error occurred after several containers with weapons were inadvertently labelled as ‘general goods’, describing the mistake as “regrettable”.

“It is the policy of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan that during the crisis in South Sudan all arms and ammunition for peacekeeping contingents are flown into respective areas of deployment and not taken by road. This is an important security measure,” the statement said.

Lakes state MP Taban Abel Aguek said Johnson must stand down, saying the mission’s mandate had gone from supporting the host government to supporting rebel actors seeking regime change.

Aguek said the evidence was irrefutable and that Johnson must accept responsibility for the error committed under her leadership.

“We have got all the proofs. The trucks we have got here and labelled [by the] UN and whose waybill is properly signed as ‘construction materials’ were found to contain not even single bag of cement. What they contain there are war weapons, not peace keeping weapons. The excuse [the] UN now gives does not marry up with any reality on the ground,” he said.

“Hilde Johnson has tarnished the name and image of [the] UN. If Hilde Johnson does not resign, after what we have seen now in Rumbek, then even UNMISS will have no meaning,” he added.

Paul Dhel Gum, acting minister of information and telecommunication, said his Warrap state government condemned UNMISS’ involvement in the transportation of arms to rebel areas.

“[The] Warrap state government and the entire population of Warrap state condemn with strongest terms possible the barbaric act of UNMISS in the recent attempt to smuggle arms to rebel areas in Unity state,” Gum said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

Gum said the latest incident was among a series of deliberate violations against the sovereignty of South Sudan.

“It has become clear now that [the] UN is responsible for the escalation of war and suffering of the people in South Sudan by taking sides. The possession of land-mines, anti-aircraft and anti-tank [weaponry] shows clearly that the weapons were for rebels in Unity state,” he said, adding that the use of heavy weaponry had not been agreed by the government.

Warrap shares a border with Unity state and as such all the loads passing through its territory are subject to screening and security checks, even if they belong to humanitarian movements.

Relations between the South Sudan government and UNMISS have been increasingly fraught in recent months, with president Salva Kiir accusing the agency of seeking to take over the young country, although he later softened his stance.

(ST)


TUESDAY 11 MARCH 2014

S. Sudan advocacy group decries conditions in UN camps

March 10, 2014 (KAMPALA) – Rally for Peace and Democracy (RPD), an indigenous non-governmental entity in South Sudan has openly decried the worsening conditions in the various United Nation camps sheltering the displaced people.

RPD, In a statement to Sudan Tribune on Monday, claimed children were daily dying from causes related to undernourishment, waterborne and airborne diseases.

The organisation mainly attributed the worsening conditions in the camps to what it described as “continued targeted killing” of citizens, while cases of acute food shortage have reportedly persisted thus aggravating the situation.

“Most of IDPs reported that their food security situation in the camps is deteriorating further and that their repeated complaints are falling on deaf ears! It is mid-Summer in South Sudan. Heat rages ominously in Juba, Bor and Malakal, where the greatest count of Internal Displace Peoples,” its statement reads in part.

“Domestic flies, mosquitoes and cockroaches infest the camp dwellings as the rainy season almost approaching. This has driven fear for reason of high morbidity and fatality caseloads of bacterial diseases – bloody and watery diarrhea (dysentery), malaria, typhoid, pneumonia and warm infestations,” it added.

The local entity, in its report, also the daily patient workload, which it says was simply too overwhelming for the few medical personnel serving in the camps. “Sanitary facilities constructed for the IDP camps are not only unsightly, but horribly unhygienic disease traps,” it observed.

Unconfirmed reports also cited some insecurity concern within the UN facilities, with RDP highlighting an incident in which armed government security forces allegedly ransacked the makeshift toilets erected outside the perimeter fence of the IDP camps in Juba.

“This obviously worsened the condition and the over forty thousand displaced persons have to scramble for toilets and bathroom shelters. This sadistic, heartless act of the security forces is evidence that the government wants the IDPs dead at all costs”, the organisation stressed in its report.

Recently, it said, some hard-hearted armed security personnel feeling no restrain, shot randomly inside the camps, killed and wounded the IDPs, further warning of the consequences of “ominous government media propaganda that the IDPs are rebels.”

The organisation, however, urged the United Nations to consider finding a more radical solution toward mitigating the escalating crisis at the IDP camps.

“It [UN] should be borne in mind that on top of the unspeakable sanitary, health and living conditions, the camps are fast becoming insecure and too dangerous, armed conflicts between disgruntled securities,” it noted.

Stephane Dujarric, the new spokesman for the UN Secretary-General told a briefing on Monday about the continued influx of those displaced from Jonglei state into Upper Nile’s Melut county.

"Local officials also highlighted food shortages in the area that are causing tensions with local communities," Dujarric said in a statement.

Up to 75,000 South Sudanese, according to the UN, are currently being sheltered in eight of its camps within the country, with the numbers expected to rise.

CITIZENS REACT

Meanwhile, several of those displaced told Sudan Tribune they were forced to flee the UN premises due to the ill-treatment from security forces in the country.

Nyakuoth Thuok, a 30-year old mother of five children says she was forced to flee the UN camp in South Sudan due of fear from ethnicity cleansing that erupted in mid-December last year.

“Our lives are always under threat from enemies whenever some of us go out from this camp. So we have decided to stay in this camp for our safety,” she said, adding that most women and children feared to return home due to alleged continued killings in Juba.

Makuil Betiem, another displaced citizen said most women and children were suffering a lot from hunger, despite the small ratios delivered by aids workers.

“Most of us received support from international aids agencies, but a time this assistant does not reach all of us. What is given is not enough for the whole family at a times it takes long for distribution among people which is life threatening,” he confessed.

He also claimed that shootings of those displaced at UN camps was the order of the day, but insisted this was a clear message for those affected to flee.

About 10,000 people have reportedly been killed and nearly a million displaced in the country’s worst-ever violence outbreak since it seceded from Sudan in July 2011.

(ST)

No comments: