They crushed, shot or burned them alive, HRW report on S.Sudan soldiers

Cases include brutal gang rapes, rapes that took place publicly in front of others, and rapes in which the victims were threatened with murder before they were raped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOUTH SUDANESE GOVERNMENT  forces and allied fighters carried out scores of killings, rapes, and widespread burning and pillage of civilian property in a military offensive in Unity State causing forced displacement, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian property during the offensive between April and June 2015 amount to war crimes, and the killings and rapes may also constitute crimes against humanity,  said the rights body.

The report reveals shocking allegations of atrocities committed by government forces in the ongoing 19-month-old war, documenting “deliberate attacks on civilians” that it said constitute war crimes.

They were running with the tanks after the people, and then after they hit them they would roll back over them, to confirm that they were dead,” one woman told HRW.

Human Rights Watch says it documented ‘shocking accounts of about 60 unlawful killings of civilian women, men, and children, including the elderly’. Some were hanged and others shot, and others were burned alive.

“Government-aligned forces carried out gruesome killings and widespread rapes and burned countless homes as they swept across large parts of Unity State,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The devastating offensive in Unity State is the latest in a conflict characterized by shocking disregard for civilian life.”

Terrified civilians

Killings took place in towns and villages but fighters from the Bul Nuer ethnic group operating alongside government forces also shot at terrified civilians as they chased them into forests and swamps, the report says. “They were hunting people and cows,” said one woman, who, like numerous others, described spending days hiding amid reeds or long grass.

Human Rights Watch spoke to people from more than 25 villages or settlements who said government forces and aligned militia had deliberately burned their villages to the ground, in whole or in part. The soldiers and militia also deliberately destroyed food stores and seeds intended for cultivation.

South Sudan’s conflict began in December 2013, triggered by a gun battle between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to the former Vice President Riek Machar. The conflict has been dominated by war crimes, including widespread killings of civilians because of their ethnicity or perceived allegiances. Two million people have fled their homes.

No medical help

Only one woman that Human Rights Watch interviewed had received any medical or other services for sexual violence.

“Women and girls are bearing the brunt of this brutal offensive as fighters target them for rape, abduction, beatings, and forced labor,” Bekele said. “Brutal attacks on fleeing civilians combined with widespread burning of villages, food, and other items that people need to survive suggests that the government’s aim was to forcibly displace people from their homes.”

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