South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Simon Deng
The national minister of information Michael Makuei Lueth said that the United Nations Human Rights Commission in South Sudan should stick to its mandate of monitoring and reporting on human rights but not investigation.
“The government accepts that the Commission should monitor and report on the human rights situation but its powers of investigation should be relinquished to the government and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan,” Makuei said during a press conference in Juba on Tuesday.
He said that they reject the Commission’s intrusion and expansion of its powers into monitoring the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement, which is the mandate of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring Evaluation Commission (RJMEC).
Makuei said that the government is experiencing a difficult relationship with the United Nations Human Rights Commission in South Sudan despite South Sudan having made enormous progress on human right issues.
“The government requests the Commission to share evidence and names of the individuals and entities accused of rights violations so that the government could evaluate the evidence with a view of addressing them through accountability process,” he said.
‘If the government position is accepted, the government is willing to accept the extension of the Commission for a period of one year under,” Makuei said.
Members of the Commission visited the country from February 12-17, where they held discussions with President Salva Kiir and other senior government officials and engaged with the civil society, victims and survivors of human rights violations, human rights defenders, diplomats and UN mission officials.
The Commissioners traveled to the Greater Pibor Administrative Area and Jonglei State where women and children continue to be abducted in violent attacks along ethnic lines, carried out by heavily armed militias.
