The United Nations deputy chief for human rights said Monday that the “utter devastation” she witnessed during a visit to Abyei served as a warning of the possible future of Sudan’s stricken border area.
“The utter devastation I saw in Abyei was a chilling warning of what might become of the border area,” UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang told a news conference at the end of a week-long visit to Sudan.
“Some tukuls [traditional thatched huts] were still smouldering during my brief visit there, and looters still roamed among the ruins in the presence of the Sudanese Armed Forces. All the civilians were gone,” she said.
The UN Security Council on Monday ordered a 4 200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to the territory, which was occupied by SAF troops last month, in a bid to ease tensions ahead of south Sudan’s split from the north on July 9.
Kang called for a thorough human rights investigation in Abyei and South Korodfan, the neighbouring northern state where a separate conflict has raged since June 5 between government forces and militia aligned to the south.
She also called the large number of civilians killed in South Sudan this year “unacceptable,” and highlighted concerns about abuses and lack of accountability among the soon-to-be-independent nation’s security services.
“Combating discrimination, creating space for political participation, realising economic and social rights, and pushing for accountability will be major challenges for the new government,” Kang said.
More than 1 500 people have died in violence in South Sudan since a largely peaceful independence referendum in January, according to UN and official figures.
Kang also visited Darfur, where she described as “encouraging” reports of people displaced by the eight-year conflict returning to the western part of the region.
But she said far too many people remained displaced, an estimated 1.9-million according to UN estimates, and that Darfuris still live in fear of attacks on their communities, of rape and of being arbitrarily detained.
Some 70 000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Darfur this year, many of whom have fled to Zamzam, the main refugee camp in North Darfur, and Kang said she was “shocked” by the conditions there.
“I call on the Sudanese government to create a human rights environment in Darfur — and across Sudan — that is conducive to discussing, creating and sustaining peace,” the UN official said.
Key to this would be lifting the state of emergency and guaranteeing freedom of expression and freedom of arbitrary arrest, she added. — AFP