The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Director of Human Rights Section Eugene Nindorera on Wednesday called on the transitional government to establish transitional justice mechanisms to ensure accountability for warmongers and perpetrators of rights abuses.

Nindorera told a news conference in Juba today that the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan, chapter 5, provides for transitional justice, accountability, reconciliation and healing.

“There is a lot needs to be done because there are still a lot of challenges and we have identified those challenges and try to be as objective as possible. There are still number of issues in terms of accountability, fight against impunity. When you have also POC sites, by itself, it’s an indication there is something wrong,” he said.

“It is really important to create an environment which is conducive for the transitional justice mechanism because if we have a real insecurity and people have guns everywhere, even the victims are going to be at risk,” he said.

“If there is no security at all, it will be difficult to protect the victims or the witnesses,” Nindorera said. He further said protection of the victims must be addressed by the national authority.

He called for the formation of the three bodies of the truth commission, hybrid court and compensation and reparation authority with the support of government, civil society and stakeholders and said the former must be headed by a neutral person.

“If you wanted to do with truth and reconciliation, it is really important to make sure the chairperson is someone who is going to be accepted by all. Somebody who would take sides, somebody who would not support one ethnic group and neglecting other one,” he added.

Nindodera further said UNMISS will support the transitional government of national unity with the implementation of the commission’s recommendation and wider dissemination of its final report.