UN gave arms to rebels - report
SOUTH SUDAN: The UN mission in South Sudan gave weapons to a top rebel general just weeks after civil war began three years ago, and his forces went on to carry out one of the war’s worst atrocities, according to a report released yesterday.
The Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based research group, found that in December 2013, UN officials in the town of Bentiu in northern Unity state handed dozens of weapons, as well as ammunition, to rebel general James Koang.
Four months later, Koang’s troops killed hundreds of civilians sheltering in a mosque and a hospital in Bentiu, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. Koang has said in interviews that those killed were not civilians but members of a progovernment militia. The report did not say whether the weapons given by the United Nations were used in the massacre.
UN officials in South Sudan and New York did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the allegations.
South Sudan’s war, which entered its fourth year yesterday, has pitted soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against those backing the former vice president, Riek Machar, a Nuer.
Tens of thousands of people have died in battles that have played out along ethnic lines, and UN officials and human rights groups have accused both sides of committing crimes against humanity. A top UN human rights official recently warned that the country is on the verge of ‘‘all-out ethnic civil war’’ that could result in genocide.
The United Nations established a peacekeeping mission in South Sudan in 2011 that has grown to include over 13,000 soldiers and police. Throughout the war, the UN mission has found itself caught in the crossfire, accused by each side of supporting the other, with UN bases at times coming under attack. UN investigations, aid groups and research groups have accused the UN mission of failing to adequately protect civilians, including people on and near its bases.
According to the new report, UN officials in South Sudan said in interviews that they gave about 80 assault rifles, five machine guns, grenades and ammunition to Koang.
At the time, UN officials in Bentiu reported to the mission’s headquarters in Juba that there had been a transfer of 40 rifles, the report said.
It quoted an unidentified rebel, meanwhile, as saying they received 500 guns from the United Nations.
The weapons came from soldiers and civilians who fled to the UN base in Bentiu for protection during the fighting and handed over their weapons to peacekeepers, according to the report.
Koang, a soft-spoken Nuer who was the top government military official in Bentiu when the war began, quickly defected and took control of Bentiu. He asked the United Nations to give him the guns, according to the report. UN officials complied, apparently because they considered the general a friend, the report said.
‘‘When [James] Koang took power, we all knew him,’’ said one unidentified official from the UN mission in South Sudan quoted in the report. ‘‘The majority of the opposition leaders in Bentiu had been our usual interlocutors. We had even trained them.’’
The report said that UN officials in Bentiu asked their bosses in the capital for guidance on the matter but none came, so they made their own decision.
A subsequent request by Koang for more weapons was turned down, it said.
The United Nations and the US government have imposed sanctions on Koang, with the US Treasury Department saying that his rebels had ‘‘targeted civilians, including women and children, with killing, sexual violence and attacks on schools, hospitals, religious sites, and locations where civilians were seeking refuge.’’ – Washington Post