‘Publicly execute rapist soldiers’

JUBA/ACCRA. — South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday ordered the country’s defence minister and the army chief to publicly execute members of the armed forces found of raping women and girls. Speaking on a religious occasion in the town of Yei, southwest of the capital Juba, President Kiir said members of the security forces who were convicted of rape would be severely punished. “If a soldier rapes a woman or a girl, the punishment is to shoot him in the head.”

JUBA/ACCRA. — South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday ordered the country’s defence minister and the army chief to publicly execute members of the armed forces found of raping women and girls.

Speaking on a religious occasion in the town of Yei, southwest of the capital Juba, President Kiir said members of the security forces who were convicted of rape would be severely punished.

“If a soldier rapes a woman or a girl, the punishment is to shoot him in the head and in public,” President Kiir said in a speech broadcast live on state-owned radio and television stations. The South Sudanese leader admitted that the move may attract criticism from human rights defenders, but it is meant to restore stability in the East African nation.

“People have ears and eyes to see. If they see or hear that rapists or criminals are being killed, they will stop committing these acts,” Kiir said.

He urged the community of Yei to end violence and support his national dialogue initiative declared late last year, which was intended to end the on-going mass displacement and violence in the previously peaceful Greater Equatoria region.

The United Nations has on several occasions accused the South Sudanese government troops and opposition forces of committing sexual violence and rapes against women and girls. The UN Mission in the South Sudan (UNMISS) reported last year that it documented at least 172 cases of sexual violence in Juba since renewed fighting erupted in July 2016.

In another development, the dream of 206 people to don the Ghana police uniform has been dashed following their dismissal by the Ghana Police Service, local media reported Monday.

The recruits, who were receiving training at the Pwalugu Police Training School (PPTS) in the Upper East Region, were dismissed after they were found to have presented forged documents for entry into the service.

Director of Public Affairs of Ghana Police Service Cephas Arthur, told Classfmonline.com, the Ghana Police Service would take legal action against the dismissed recruits.

Arthur, reacting to fears that the dismissed recruits could pose a danger to society, told local Onua FM that the recruits “are no danger to the society” as they had not trained to the level of handling guns.

Rather, he said, their training would “be beneficial to society because they have gone through certain form of police training”.