UNITED NATIONS/ADDIS ABABA,
Courtesy of Reuters,
March 5, 2015(Nyamilepedia) — A much-anticipated African Union inquiry calls for South Sudan’s president and his rival to be barred from a transitional government and for the oil-producing country to effectively be placed under AU control, say sources and a draft of the report.
The recommendations are directly at odds with a peace deal being negotiated that would retain Salva Kiir as president and appoint rebel leader Riek Machar as deputy. The two are holding talks this week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on forming a unity government.
Fighting between forces loyal to Kiir and rebels allied with Machar plunged South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, into a civil war in December 2013. At least 10,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million civilians displaced.
The inquiry blamed the United States, Britain and Norway for creating “a politically unchallenged armed power” by backing a 2005 peace deal that “ushered in an unaccountable political class”.
The findings were to be presented to the African Union’s Peace and Security Council on Jan. 29 but the body shelved publication of the report. The inquiry’s findings have not been released due to fears its publication could disrupt peace negotiations, say diplomats in the 54-state African Union.
Reuters obtained a 60-page draft of the inquiry, which a source close to the five-member inquiry panel said was produced in October. The same recommendations of barring Kiir and Machar from a transitional government were included in a new draft in January, the sources told Reuters.
Kiir sacked Machar as his deputy in July 2013, sparking the crisis. The United Nations and aid agencies accuse both sides of ethnic-based massacres and grave human rights violations including widespread rape and executions.
The United States supported Kiir until it lost confidence in him in late 2013. Washington had hoped he could oversee a stable, oil-producing, majority Christian state allied to the West in contrast to neighboring Muslim-led Sudan, which is hostile to Washington.
The conflict reopened ethnic fault lines, pitting Kiir’s Dinka people against Machar’s ethnic Nuer forces.
The violence “ethnically cleansed” the capital Juba of Nuer, who then sparked revenge attacks, said the draft of the inquiry obtained by Reuters.
The inquiry, led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, holds Kiir and Machar responsible for the political collapse in December 2013 and “the organized massacres and the large-scale violence that followed.”
“RULE OF THE GUN”
The draft recommended that members of the South Sudan government, including the president, vice president and ministers in power before the cabinet’s dissolution in July 2013 “be barred from participation in the transitional executive.”
It called for an AU-appointed and U.N.-backed three-person panel to oversee a five-year transition and the creation of a transitional executive that would place all oil revenue in an escrow account overseen by the African Development Bank.
It recommended the creation of an African Oversight Force made up of troops “without prior involvement or direct interest in South Sudan” that would be under AU command and “the overall charge” of a U.N. peacekeeeping mission.
It does not specify how many troops would make up the force. There are already some 11,500 U.N. peacekeepers in South Sudan.
Fighting has continued despite a truce signed a month ago by Kiir and Machar, who aim to form a transitional government of national unity by July 9. The current peace talks in Addis Ababa will extend beyond a Thursday deadline set by mediators.
The inquiry blamed some of South Sudan’s problems on the United States, Britain, Norway and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-country Eastern African trading bloc known as IGAD, who were behind a 2005 deal paving the way for South Sudan’s 2011 independence from Sudan.
It said they helped to establish “a politically unchallenged armed power in South Sudan” that acted with impunity and legitimized “rule of the gun.”
Officials from the United States and Britain declined to comment on a document they said they had not seen. Officials from South Sudan, IGAD and Norway were not immediately available for comment.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged public release of the findings. The United States, Britain and Norway last month called for the report’s release.
The draft obtained by Reuters recommends that the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights, instead of the International Criminal Court, be given criminal jurisdiction over “high state officials individually responsible for war crimes and/or gross violation of human rights.”
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by David Storey, Jason Szep and James Dalgleish)
6 comments
Dinkas and Nuer ussually acts in primtive ways becuase few of them has just learned something new. Otherwiese they would remain behave like cows.
South Sudan should be run in the next few years by eminent South Sudanese drawn from the three defunct regions of Equatoria, Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal for a period of 10 years. These three leaders will manage South Sudan for a period of 10 years in two successions. In each segment of the 10 years, there shall be at least 1 female member of the 3-leaders arrangement.
Tow members from each tribe will be selected by their tribes-mate to sit house of representative in Ramciel to deliberate national issues on behalf of their tribes. Tribes cannot be wished away.
50% of any resources will be used in that region. 50% of the income from oil, agriculture, animal resources, etc from Upper Nile will be used to develop it; Equatoria will use 50% of their resources from gold, agricultural potential, etc to develop Equatoria; Bahr el Ghazal will use 50% of their resources from agriculture, animal resources, etc to develop the region. The remaining 50% from these regions will be used in the central government in Ramciel.
Kiir and Riek will be allowed to take part in national politics after the lapse of the 10 year period. These are my thoughts.
this is higher time that trouble makers who claimed to be leaders and yet lack compassionate face justice.let AU report on the south Sudan crisis be release and let individual sanction go on air. enough is enough extension of days means we are not serious and not showing pity to innocent south Sudanese suffering.time has come for AU,IGAD and UN security council to show to the world that they are not barking dogs that could not bite and indeed by so doing you will live according to the aims and expectations. time for conspiracy against south Sudanese ordinary masses is over.
What the AU said it will give chance to the revenge either individually or in groups that will lead to day to day death in south sudan as in rebel fighting for change and reform while the regime acting for tribals cleansing since the begining upto now supported by uganda, if the AU put the present of m7ni in S sudan under their feet and ignored fact that kiir had targeted people according to their tribes and AU defend the regime by deferred their report on crimes commited during the war, any attemp by AU to control S sudan will shift the objectives of fighters from change and reform to revenge either in groups or individualy as i mentioned before.
Dr. Machar,
whether you are going to lead this country one day or not you are making a lot of changes in this country and we are still proud of you. These are the changes we need to see in South Sudan. For example, you reverse John Garang united Sudan to self-determination with the help of white army and black army. Now because of you the dictatorship tendency of Kiir that is about to take root in South Sudan is going to change.
Nuer blood which spilled out all over South Sudan is going to free all South Sudanese from tyranny regime. Nuer blood is like Jesus blood which free man from sins. The Nuer blood is going to free all South Sudanese from burden of dictatorship.
God bless you Dr. Machar, God bless Jiech En Bor, and God bless Jiech En Char. God bless White Army and Black Army who lost life in Juba and else where in South Sudan. God bless innocent Nuer who were killed and burned in Juba.
Nuer will never allow colonization and re-colonization in South Sudan. Nuer will never ever allow dictatorship take root deeply in South Sudan.
You nuers and Dinkas, the so called followers of Machar & Kiir have failed this nation. your endless greed have killed this nation. i just want to assure you that if you did not Learn from this current conflict that is killing you like flies, then you are no better than cows. like dinka like nuer like the cow dung