Ex-Dutch general to probe Juba violence

THE UN has appointed a retired Dutch major-general to investigate the violence which engulfed South Sudan’s capital Juba in July, and the response of UN peacekeepers.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Major-General (retired) Patrick Cammaert of the Netherlands to lead an independent special investigation into the violence.

Ki-moon’s office said the investigation would review reports of incidents of attacks on civilians and cases of sexual violence that occurred within or in the vicinity of the UN House Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites in Juba.

“The investigation will also determine the actions of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and whether the Mission responded appropriately to prevent these incidents and protect civilians within its resources and capabilities at the time.

“In addition, the investigation will review the circumstances surrounding the attack on the Terrain Hotel and assess the Mission’s response.”

The team will also visit Juba for interviews with relevant interlocutors.

A final report of the probe will be presented to the Ki-moon within a month and the findings will be made public.

Cammaert had a distinguished military career with the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps and the UN, including as Force Commander in UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), as military adviser to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and as General Officer Commanding the Eastern Division in the UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monuc). Recently, he led a Headquarters-Board of Inquiry on the circumstances of the clashes that occurred in the UNMISS PoC site in Malakal, South Sudan, on February 17-18.

On August 17, alarmed by preliminary findings on the July 11 attack on a the Hotel Terrain in the nation’s capital, in which one person was killed and several civilians raped and beaten by men in uniform, Ki-moon decided to launch the independent investigation to examine this and other incidents and generally evaluate the overall response by UNMISS.

The incidents occurred during a spate of clashes between rival forces – the Sudan People’s Liberation Army loyal to President Salva Kiir and the SPLA in opposition backing First Vice-President Riek Machar – that broke out in and around Juba, on July 7, close to the fifth anniversary of the country’s independence. – Reuters