Brig. Lul Ruai Koang, official spokesman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), has firmly dismissed reports that the government forces committed atrocities during Juba fighting in July.

This reaction came after human rights organization Amnesty International released a report recently saying the South Sudanese government forces were responsible for deliberately killing civilians, raping women and girls and looting property in Juba.

In the report, Joanne Mariner, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser, said that government troops killed men from the Nuer ethnic group, raped women and girls, and carried out a massive campaign of pillage.

Lul told Radio Tamazuj yesterday that the report filed by the Amnesty International lacks evidence that could implicate the government forces in such crimes, saying the SPLA has laws that criminalize such atrocities.

He pointed out that about 77 members of the SPLA were tried before a court marital for crimes committed during the fighting in Juba.

But the new report also criticises the use of military courts to try soldiers suspected of abuses. It concludes that the chronic lack of real justice in South Sudan for crimes such as deliberate killings of civilians underscores the need for the speedy establishment of an independent hybrid court that will have jurisdiction over such crimes.