The United Nations has delayed publication of a document on human rights abuses in South Sudan, which it had earlier announced it would release, instead presenting only an ‘interim report’ to the UN Security Council without making it public.

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic during a recent visit to Juba had announced that the UN’s ‘first report’ on the human rights abuses committed in South Sudan would be a ‘comprehensive one.’

“I think that our first report coming in a couple of weeks will be a comprehensive one addressing Juba as well as some other place,” Simonovic told BBC on 17 January.

On the basis of those remarks, the date for release of the report would have been in February, but instead the UN yesterday disclosed that the ‘comprehensive public report’ would only be made available in April.

According to a press release on Friday, the Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it presented the same day an ‘interim report’ on human rights abuses to the UN Security Council in New York, explaining that the preliminary report covered a period of six weeks starting in mid December.

“The product of over 500 interviews of victims, witnesses and other sources, the interim report is intended to provide the Security Council with an initial account of human rights violations and atrocities,” stated UNMISS.

The peacekeeping mission added, "A more comprehensive public report on human rights violations and the ongoing crisis in South Sudan will be issued in April.”

Preliminary information

The UN says it is continuing to collect evidence of human rights abuses in South Sudan, and provided some examples on the contents of the interim report given yesterday to the Security Council in New York. 

Among the events described are “killings of Nuer residents of Juba during the initial 72 hours of the crisis in mid-December” by SPLA soldiers, and killings of Dinka civilians in Malakal “by armed Nuer youths as well as SPLA and South Sudan National Police Service defectors.”

Although not covered in the period of the interim report, UNMISS also disclosed in its press release yesterday that an armed patrol to Malakal city centre collected evidence that opposition forces “targeted and killed ten unarmed civilians at the Malakal Teaching Hospital on the basis of their ethnic background on 19 February.”

Also in Malakal, UNMISS staff witnessed the “extra-judicial execution of two children outside the perimeter of the UNMISS compound yesterday (20 Feb.) by armed youths believed to be allied with armed opposition forces.”

UNMISS is also investigating reports of mass graves in Juba, Bentiu and Rubkona, the press release adds, saying they “deeply regret” that civilians continue to be targeted and killed in South Sudan.

“The report concludes with a road map that indicates the next steps in the UNMISS Human Rights Division’s ongoing investigations and points the way towards the completion of the comprehensive public report that is due to be released next April,” concludes the UN press statement.

UN rights chief zeroes in on Gudele massacre (24 Jan.)

Photo: The morgue at the Malakal Teaching Hospital, 21 January 2014 (AP)