In recent
times, some parts of Africa have witnessed violence on a scale that has shocked
its people, drawn international condemnation and, in some cases, resulted in a
call for intervention by the international community.
Recent atrocities in the Central African
Republic and South Sudan have made news, but there have been other violent
eruptions in Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya and
Mali. The African Union (AU) has been criticised for not doing enough to
address impunity on the continent and for failing to expressly condemn and
reject impunity.
In 2013,
the African Union Peace and Security Council took an unprecedented step. For
the first time in the history of the regional organisation or its predecessor,
the Organization of African Unity, the Peace and Security Council established a
Commission of Inquiry.
It is investigating human rights violations
and other abuses committed during the armed conflict in South Sudan, the
African Union’s newest member and the world’s newest nation.
Against a
backdrop of criticism by some African leaders of the International Criminal
Court’s focus on African cases and repeat calls for the African Union to take
the lead in prosecutions, this is a ground-breaking development and a policy
watershed.
The
Commission has a challenging mandate, including investigating human rights
violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict and the identification of
those most responsible, who will be held to account. The commission will also
make recommendations on ways to foster reconciliation and healing among all
South Sudanese communities.
South
Sudan’s conflict, which started as a power struggle within the ruling party,
the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM), now has ethnic undertones,
pitting the two main ethnic groups against each other, President Salva Kiir’s
Dinka and his former deputy, Riek Machar’s Nuer.
Both
factions are alleged to have committed atrocities, including acts of ethnic
cleansing and targeted killings. Many South Sudanese, who endured decades
of a brutal civil war between the south and the north, now find themselves back
in the same situation. Thousands have fled to neighbouring countries or are displaced
internally. The humanitarian situation is dire.
The
Commission of Inquiry will be carrying out its work in the context of a grim,
ongoing human rights crisis. Establishing the truth about what has happened and
bringing those who have committed atrocities to justice will be a critical step
towards bringing this fractured young nation together. The rejection of
impunity cannot be simply a catch phrase; justice must be seen to be done.
The
establishment of this commission rides on the back of major developments in the
fight for accountability in Africa. In 2013, exiled former Chadian
President Hissène Habré was arraigned before the Extraordinary African
Chambers, a hybrid court established within the Senegalese legal system, for
crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his presidency. Multiple
actors, among them the African Union, first recommended his trial by Senegal in
2006, demonstrating that the African Union can be innovative and effective in
pursuing criminal accountability.
Efforts
like these are not on the global radar screen but they are critical to the
equally important objectives of seeking justice and accountability on the one
hand, and peace and stability on the other; they are mutually reinforcing.
There is no regional court with a mandate to try criminal cases – the African
Court for Human and Peoples Rights is not mandated to do so. Few national
courts currently have the jurisdiction or capacity to try such cases, including
South Sudan’s courts.
To overcome the challenges that may arise from
the recommendations of the Commission, the South Sudanese, the African Union
and their partners must be creative and be committed to achieving justice for
the victims. A peaceful and unified South Sudan must have the confidence to
confront this dark moment of its history and ensure justice for the victims.
This commission must do the best to book those who have been behind
escalation of violence. Sadly, there will never be a day when those perpetuating
ethnic violence shall be murdered, sleep hungry or even sleep in shanty camps.
It will always be innocent South Sudanese to suffer as war take strange
steps forward. Last week, Machar and Kiir went to Addis Ababa and signed a
peace agreement which lasted for hours. Though both later claimed to have been
forced to sign it, my opinion is; none of them is patriotic or pathetic for
fellow citizens.
South Sudan is not a personal property of Kiir or Machar, neither does
it belong to Dinkar nor Nuer, it belong to south Sudanese as both of them
endured struggle for independence.
South Sudanese deserve to live peacefully hence any one perturbing their
peace must be brought to books of law. Alas, they must be punished.
