The UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan has pointed out in a report to the Security Council Sanctions Committee that President Salva Kiir has not taken action against individuals and military units under his command who allegedly perpetrated atrocities in the country.

In their report, the UN Experts said that Kiir bears “command responsibility” for forces that allegedly attacked civilians in Juba, Unity State and elsewhere. They were referring to a legal doctrine that was applied by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the case of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, who was indicted for alleged war crimes and genocide perpetrated in Darfur.

“As both the head of state and the commander-in-chief of the SPLA, President Salva Kiir holds the active military rank of general and is formally the highest military commander in the country,” writes the UN panel, stressing Kiir's alleged personal responsibility.

Published this week, the UN report highlights Kiir's alleged failure to take action against perpetrators of human rights abuses: “At least three reports concerning serious violations of human rights are with the Office of the President, waiting for Kiir's action, to hold to account alleged perpetrators under his command.”

“These include a South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS) report into the killings in Juba in December 2013; a 15 March 2014 report by the South Sudan Human Rights Commission that was made public but the recommendations of which were addressed to Kiir; and a report by Jonglei State officials into the attack on the UNMISS PoC site in April 2014,” says the panel report.

State officials from Jonglei had previously told Radio Tamazuj that they had not completed any investigation into the Bor PoC massacre, claiming it was a task for the national government. The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan carried out its own investigation, concluding that the attack on the Bor 'protection site' was planned in advance and took place under the watch of government forces, which controlled the town at the time of the attack and afterwards.

Nobody has been arrested in connection with the Bor PoC attack, in which at least 47 people were killed.

Similarly, the African Union Commission of Inquiry has concluded that killings of unarmed Nuer civilians in Juba in December 2013 were carried out “pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy” and were coordinated and possibly also planned in advance. Nobody has been prosecuted in connection with the December 2013 killings in Juba either.

Kiir himself was given a copy of the report of the AU Commission of Inquiry by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the UN panel points out. But this “did not lead to any investigations or actions against individuals specifically singled out in the report, such as the commander of the Presidential Guard, Marial Chanuong.”

In response to the UN Experts' report, South Sudan's Minister of Information Michael Makuei has accused the UN of trying to carry out “regime change.” He also complained that the panel did not give the government enough time to read the report before releasing it. On the other hand, the chairman of the Panel of Experts says that they provided the government with the report four weeks prior to its release.