Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Three mass graves found in South Sudan

situazione sempre molto critica in Sud Sudan
 
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/south-sudan/10537035/Three-mass-graves-found-in-South-Sudan.html
 
 
Three mass graves found in South Sudan
United Nations warns warring factions in South Sudan that reports of 
mass killings will be investigated, as eyewitnesses speak of wave of 
brutal ethnic murders and William Hague says situation is 'deteriorating'
 
12:10PM GMT 24 Dec 2013
A mass grave containing some 75 bodies has been found in South Sudan's 
Unity State and two other mass graves have been reported in the capital 
Juba after ethnic violence, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on both 
sides to protect civilians and warned that political and military 
leaders could be held to account for crimes.
"Mass extrajudicial killings, the targeting of individuals on the basis 
of their ethnicity and arbitrary detentions have been documented in 
recent days," Pillay said in a statement. "We have discovered a mass 
grave in Bentiu, in Unity State, and there are reportedly at least two 
other mass graves in Juba."
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon also warned warring factions in South 
Sudan that reports of crimes against humanity would be investigated.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said he deplored the continued 
violence in South Sudan as he announced a senior diplomat had veen sent 
to the country to support a political resolution.
 
FCO Political Director Sir Simon Gass arrived in Juba on Tuesday to 
support the political process. He will be working closely with Norwegian 
and US envoys who are also in Juba.
Mr Hague said: "The situation in South Sudan is deteriorating. I am 
extremely concerned by reports of increasing violence along ethnic 
lines. The targeting of civilians is unacceptable, as are threats 
against UN peacekeepers trying to protect them. I call on all South 
Sudanese leaders to restrain their supporters and resolve political 
differences peacefully.
“South Sudan was a country born amid hopes of increased peace and 
prosperity for its people. The gains made over the past two years should 
not be thrown away.”
President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, his former deputy, 
have both indicated they were ready to talk to try to end a deepening 
conflict that has killed hundreds of people since it erupted this month.
Western powers and east African states, anxious to prevent the fighting 
from destabilising a particularly fragile region, have tried to mediate 
between Machar, who hails from the Nuer tribe, and Kiir, a Dinka.
Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said that the bodies of 75 soldiers of the 
Sudan People's Liberation Army were believed to be in the mass grave in 
Bentiu visited by UN rights officers.
"They are reportedly all of Dinka ethnicity," Shamdasani told Reuters in 
Geneva, adding that the U.N. team had been unable to verify the numbers 
or identities.
UN rights officers had not yet been able to visit the sites of two other 
mass graves, Jebel-Kujur and Newside, near Eden, both in Juba, she said.
Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge, voiced deep concern about the 
safety of those arrested who are being held in unknown locations, 
including "several hundred civilians who were reportedly arrested during 
house-to-house searches and from various hotels in Juba". Hundreds of 
members of the South Sudan National Police Service were allegedly 
ordered to be disarmed and arrested from police stations across Juba, 
she said.
Mr Ban has asked the Security Council to nearly double the size of the 
UN mission in the country, which has been hit by more than a week of 
escalating battles between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and 
those backing his rival Riek Machar, a former vice president who was 
sacked in July.
With fighting ongoing, badly overstretched UN bases in the capital Juba 
and across the country have been flooded with at least 45,000 civilians, 
some of whom have recounted an orchestrated campaign of mass killings 
and rape by government forces.
The official toll is 500 dead, although the real figure is believed to 
be far higher, aid workers say. Hundreds of thousands of others have 
fled to the countryside, prompting warnings of an imminent humanitarian 
disaster.
Fighting has spread to half of the young nation's 10 states, the UN said 
Tuesday.
Rebel fighters are also reported to have committed atrocities in areas 
they control, as the oil-rich but impoverished nation, which won 
independence from Sudan to much fanfare just two years ago, appeared to 
be sliding deeper into civil war.
"The world is watching all sides in South Sudan," Mr Ban told reporters 
ahead of emergency Security Council talks on the crisis.
"The United Nations will investigate reports of grave human rights 
violations and crimes against humanity. Those responsible at the senior 
level will be held personally accountable and face the consequences - 
even if they claim they had no knowledge of the attacks," he said.
British, Canadian and Kenyan citizens are among 3,000 foreigners trapped 
in a South Sudan city experiencing bouts of heavy machine gun fire, one 
of the most violent areas of the weeklong conflict.
Australians, Ugandans and Ethiopians are also among 17,000 people 
seeking protection at a UN base in Bor, a city that could see increased 
violence in coming days, said Toby Lanzer, the UN's humanitarian 
coordinator.
The UN has about 7,000 peacekeepers and international police in the 
world's newest nation. One diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity 
because he wasn't authorized to disclose the information to the media, 
said he expects the secretary-general to request 5,000 additional troops.
Ban said the situation in South Sudan "is of mounting urgency," with 
tens of thousands of people displaced and about 45,000 seeking 
protection at UN bases.
He said he would spend most of Monday urging regional leaders to 
increase military support and "political backing for efforts to defuse 
the crisis."
In a message to the Sudanese people, the secretary-general said: "The 
United Nations will stay with you. We will do our utmost to protect you, 
to provide the humanitarian assistance you need, and most of all to help 
the country regain the path to peace."
Bor is the city where rebel forces fired on three US military aircraft 
on Saturday, forcing the Ospreys - advanced helicopter-airplane hybrids 
- to abort their evacuation mission. On Sunday, the US evacuated 
Americans by civilian US and UN helicopters.
The US over the last week has evacuated 380 Americans and 300 others 
from South Sudan, which has seen vicious, ethnically targeted violence 
pulse through the nation.


 
E' la democrazia bellezza.
 
Devi farci il callo, dove arriva lei terrore. 
 
 


delirium