Fwd: [sudans-john-ashworth] 'Thousands of women raped and assaulted' in South Sudan
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Elisabeth Janaina
Sep 18, 2017, 2:25:44 AM9/18/17
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From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 18, 2017 08:00
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] 'Thousands of women raped and assaulted' in South Sudan
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
'Thousands of women raped and assaulted' in South Sudan
Al Jazeera 18 September 2017
Thousands of women fleeing the four-year-long conflict in South Sudan
have been raped and sexually assaulted, according to rights groups and
women who have spoken to Al Jazeera.
They mainly blame the government troops of President Salva Kiir, but
also opposition forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar for
the abuses.
Many women who survived described how their husbands were killed
before they were gang-raped by government soldiers.
"My husband was following a short distance behind us," one rape
survivor told Al Jazeera.
"When he came and found these men on me, he told them to stop," she
said as she described how five government soldiers gang-raped her,
along with four other women.
"They grabbed him immediately and killed him with a knife."
Al Jazeera heard similar stories from other women now living refugee
camps in Uganda.
"They tied a blindfold on my face," another rape survivor said. "They
took all of my possession and stripped me," she added.
"Three of them were all on me. After, I grabbed my baby and left
naked. Now, I have nothing."
War crimes
Ken Scott, a war crimes prosecutor who has worked on tribunals for
many conflicts, told Al Jazeera that the sexual violence in South
Sudan is the worst he has ever seen.
"It's such a high level of incidents, widespread, been going on for a
substantial period of time, not isolated incidents, [and] one can only
conclude that war crimes involving sexual violence are taking place,"
Scott said.
A spokesman for government forces told Al Jazeera that soldiers who
rape are punished. He also questioned the stories coming from the
refugee camps.
"How do we substantiate those claims, to know for sure they are not
made up without someone coming forward to report it?" Lul Ruai Koan, a
government army (SPLA) spokesman, told Al Jazeera.
"These are claims that are being made in the refugee camps," he said.
"How do we get convinced they are not being told to say weird things
about the SPLA?"
But rights groups say they have documented widespread sexual violence
in South Sudan.
A report by Amnesty International in July found that "thousands of
South Sudanese has been subjected to sexual violence including rape,
gang rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation, torture, castration, or
forced nudity."
The report found that the perpetrators were from all sides of the conflict.
"This is pre-meditated sexual violence on a massive scale," Munthoni
Wanyeki, Amnesty's regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the
Great Lakes, said in a statement during the report's release.
"Women have been gang-raped, sexually assaulted with sticks and
mutilated with knives," Wanyeki said.
Amnesty called on the government to "take deliberate measures to halt
this epidemic of sexual violence".
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended
into war in December 2013, pitting President Salva Kiir's troops
against those or rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar.
A peace accord was signed in August 2015 and Machar returned to the
capital in April last year to share power with Kiir, before the deal
fell apart less than three months later and Machar and his supporters
fled the capital.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 3.5 million
have been displaced since the conflict began.
The war has created what has been called one of the world's
fastest-growing refugee crises and both sides of the conflict have
been accused of abuses.
Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb reports from West Nile, Uganda.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/allegations-widespread-rape-south-sudan-conflict-170917192307648.html
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
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From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 18, 2017 08:00
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] 'Thousands of women raped and assaulted' in South Sudan
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
'Thousands of women raped and assaulted' in South Sudan
Al Jazeera 18 September 2017
Thousands of women fleeing the four-year-long conflict in South Sudan
have been raped and sexually assaulted, according to rights groups and
women who have spoken to Al Jazeera.
They mainly blame the government troops of President Salva Kiir, but
also opposition forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar for
the abuses.
Many women who survived described how their husbands were killed
before they were gang-raped by government soldiers.
"My husband was following a short distance behind us," one rape
survivor told Al Jazeera.
"When he came and found these men on me, he told them to stop," she
said as she described how five government soldiers gang-raped her,
along with four other women.
"They grabbed him immediately and killed him with a knife."
Al Jazeera heard similar stories from other women now living refugee
camps in Uganda.
"They tied a blindfold on my face," another rape survivor said. "They
took all of my possession and stripped me," she added.
"Three of them were all on me. After, I grabbed my baby and left
naked. Now, I have nothing."
War crimes
Ken Scott, a war crimes prosecutor who has worked on tribunals for
many conflicts, told Al Jazeera that the sexual violence in South
Sudan is the worst he has ever seen.
"It's such a high level of incidents, widespread, been going on for a
substantial period of time, not isolated incidents, [and] one can only
conclude that war crimes involving sexual violence are taking place,"
Scott said.
A spokesman for government forces told Al Jazeera that soldiers who
rape are punished. He also questioned the stories coming from the
refugee camps.
"How do we substantiate those claims, to know for sure they are not
made up without someone coming forward to report it?" Lul Ruai Koan, a
government army (SPLA) spokesman, told Al Jazeera.
"These are claims that are being made in the refugee camps," he said.
"How do we get convinced they are not being told to say weird things
about the SPLA?"
But rights groups say they have documented widespread sexual violence
in South Sudan.
A report by Amnesty International in July found that "thousands of
South Sudanese has been subjected to sexual violence including rape,
gang rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation, torture, castration, or
forced nudity."
The report found that the perpetrators were from all sides of the conflict.
"This is pre-meditated sexual violence on a massive scale," Munthoni
Wanyeki, Amnesty's regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the
Great Lakes, said in a statement during the report's release.
"Women have been gang-raped, sexually assaulted with sticks and
mutilated with knives," Wanyeki said.
Amnesty called on the government to "take deliberate measures to halt
this epidemic of sexual violence".
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended
into war in December 2013, pitting President Salva Kiir's troops
against those or rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar.
A peace accord was signed in August 2015 and Machar returned to the
capital in April last year to share power with Kiir, before the deal
fell apart less than three months later and Machar and his supporters
fled the capital.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 3.5 million
have been displaced since the conflict began.
The war has created what has been called one of the world's
fastest-growing refugee crises and both sides of the conflict have
been accused of abuses.
Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb reports from West Nile, Uganda.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/allegations-widespread-rape-south-sudan-conflict-170917192307648.html
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
--
--
The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group.
To post to this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth-unsub...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudans-john-ashworth" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sudans-john-ashworth+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
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