New York -
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for a special tribunal for South Sudan, saying there are grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committee since widespread violence began five months ago.
The UN chief welcomed last Friday's ceasefire agreement by President Salva Kiir and his former vice-president, Riek Machar, and demanded an immediate end to fighting, which flared at the weekend. He called for “30 days of tranquility” so farmers can plant crops in peace to avoid famine in the world's newest nation.
“If the conflict continues, half of South Sudan's 12 million people will either be displaced internally, refugees abroad, starving or dead by the year's end,” Ban warned the UN Security Council.
South Sudan saw massive violence sweep the country in December, when fighting broke out between troops loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and those loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuer. Kiir fired Machar last July and accused him of trying to oust him in a coup in December, which sparked months of ethnic attacks and killings.
Ban, who visited South Sudan last week, said that since the crisis began, “many thousands of South Sudanese have been killed, atrocities have been committed by both sides, more than a million people have been displaced and nearly 5 million more need humanitarian assistance”.
A UN report last week said gross violations of human rights had been committed “on a massive scale” in South Sudan.
Ban said last week's human rights report “underscores the level of atrocities committed by all sides”, he said, and “a special - or hybrid - tribunal, with international involvement should be considered”.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said after meetings with Kiir and Machar last week that she warned them “they will inevitably be the subject of international investigations regarding the extent of their knowledge of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by subordinates under their authority”, and their failure to stop it. - Sapa-AP