U.N. Panel Calls for Sanctions on South Sudan’s Warring Leaders

An unpublished report finds "clear and convincing evidence" that Salva Kiir and Riek Machar are responsible for widespread atrocities.

BY COLUM LYNCH-JANUARY 25, 2016

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar bear personal responsibility for massive human rights abuses during the country’s two-year-long civil war and should have their financial assets frozen and be barred from traveling outside the country, according to a confidential report by a U.N. Security Council panel that was obtained byForeign Policy.

“There is clear and convincing evidence that the majority of acts committed in the course of the war, including the targeting of civilians and violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, have been directed by or undertaken with the knowledge of senior individuals in the highest level of government and within the opposition,” wrote the five-member panel, which advises the council on ways it can better enforce sanctions on individuals who are thwarting peace efforts in the country.

The findings were included in a report to the U.N. Security Council that is expected to be made public later this month. FP reviewed the report in advance of publication. Diplomats described a separate confidential annex to the report that includes recommendations that key South Sudanese government and opposition leaders, including Kiir and Machar, be sanctioned. The annex, which has been shared with the Security Council members, will not be made public.

There is a “preponderance of evidence that both Kiir and Machar maintain command responsibility for their respective forces” and that the warring armies under their authority have “consistently engaged in action and policies” that undermine the country’s peace and security and therefore merit the imposition of targeted U.N. Security Council sanctions, the panel added in the main report.

The report’s findings are expected to add to international calls for holding South Sudan’s leaders accountable for rights abuses. But there were few expectations that it would lead to concrete steps by the council to punish either of South Sudan’s rival leaders, as the United States, Russia, China, and key African leaders remain focused on convincing them to reach a political settlement to end the war.

The completion of the 49-page report comes just days after South Sudan’s government and rebel movement failed to meet a deadline for forming a unity government, the latest in a long string of setbacks in the flailing push to find a peaceful solution to the country’s bloodshed.

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