Rampaging South Sudan troops raped foreigners, killed local

[webfact]

Rampaging South Sudan troops raped foreigners, killed local

By JASON PATINKIN

 

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The soldier pointed his AK-47 at the female aid worker and gave her a choice.

 

"Either you have sex with me, or we make every man here rape you and then we shoot you in the head," she remembers him saying.

 

She didn't really have a choice: By the end of the evening, she had been raped by 15 South Sudanese soldiers.

 

On July 11, South Sudanese troops, fresh from winning a battle in the capital, Juba, over opposition forces, went on a nearly four-hour rampage through a residential compound popular with foreigners, in one of the worst targeted attacks on aid workers in South Sudan's three-year civil war. They shot dead a local journalist while forcing the foreigners to watch, raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, beat and robbed people and carried out mock executions, several witnesses told The Associated Press.

 

For hours throughout the assault, the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond to desperate calls for help. Neither did embassies, including the U.S. Embassy.

 

The Associated Press interviewed by phone eight survivors, both male and female, including three who said they were raped. The other five said they were beaten; one was shot. Most insisted on anonymity for their safety or to protect their organizations still operating in South Sudan.

 

The accounts highlight, in raw detail, the failure of the U.N. peacekeeping force to uphold its core mandate of protecting civilians, notably those just a few minutes' drive away. The Associated Press previously reported that U.N. peacekeepers in Juba did not stop the rapes of local women by soldiers outside the U.N.'s main camp last month.

 

The attack on the Terrain hotel complex shows the hostility toward foreigners and aid workers by troops under the command of South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, who has been fighting supporters of rebel leader Riek Machar since civil war erupted in December 2013.

 

Army spokesman Lul Ruai did not deny the attack at the Terrain but said it was premature to conclude the army was responsible. "Everyone is armed, and everyone has access to uniforms," he said.

 

A report on the incident compiled by the Terrain's owner at Ruai's request, seen by the AP, alleges the rapes of at least five women, torture, mock executions, beatings and looting.

 

The attack came just as people in Juba were thinking the worst was over.

 

Three days earlier, gunfire erupted outside the presidential compound between armed supporters of the two sides, at the time pushed together under an uneasy peace deal. The violence quickly spread. By Monday, as both sides prepared to call for a cease-fire, some at the Terrain started to relax.

 

And then the soldiers arrived. A Terrain staffer from Uganda said he saw between 80 and 100 men invade the compound after breaking open the gate.

 

"They were very excited, very drunk, under the influence of something, almost a mad state, walking around shooting off rounds inside the rooms," one American said.

 

For about an hour, soldiers beat the American and fired bullets at his feet and close to his head. Eventually, he was told to leave. He made his way to the nearby U.N. compound and appealed for help.

 

Meanwhile, soldiers were breaking into a two-story apartment block in the Terrain which had been deemed a safe house because of a heavy metal door guarding the apartments upstairs.

 

The soldiers then sexually assaulted women and shot through the door of a bathroom where several people were hiding, said Jesse Bunch, an American contractor who was hit in the leg.

 

"We kill you! We kill you!" the soldiers shouted, according to a Western woman in the bathroom. "They would shoot up at the ceiling and say, 'Do you want to die?' and we had to answer 'No!'"

 

The soldiers found John Gatluak, a South Sudanese journalist. The tribal scars on his forehead made it obvious he was Nuer, the same as opposition leader, Machar.

 

The soldiers then forced the foreigners to stand in a semi-circle, said Gian Libot, a Philippines citizen.

 

One soldier ranted against foreigners. "He definitely had pronounced hatred against America," Libot said, recalling the soldier's words: "You messed up this country. You're helping the rebels."

 

Then Gatluak was hauled in front of the group. One soldier shouted "Nuer," and another soldier shot him dead.

 

From the start of the attack, those inside the Terrain compound sent email, text and Facebook messages pleading for help.

 

"All of us were contacting whoever we could contact. The U.N., the U.S. embassy, contacting the specific battalions in the U.N., contacting specific departments," said the woman raped by 15 men.

 

A member of the U.N.'s Joint Operations Center in Juba first received notice of the attack at 3:37 p.m., minutes after the breach of the compound, according to an internal timeline compiled by a member of the operations center and seen by AP. The timeline shows other appeals for help.

 

The American who was released requested help from three different U.N. battalions.

 

"Everyone refused to go. Ethiopia, China, and Nepal. All refused to go," he said.

 

"The peacekeepers did not venture out of the bases to protect civilians under imminent threat," Human Rights Watch said Monday in a report on abuses throughout Juba.

 

Eventually, South Sudanese security forces entered the Terrain and rescued all but three Western women and around 16 Terrain staff. A private security firm rescued the rest the next morning.

 

Asked why U.N. peacekeepers didn't respond to repeated pleas for help, the U.N. said it is investigating.

 

"Obviously, we regret the loss of life and the violence that the people who were in Hotel Terrain endured, and we take this incident very seriously," the deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Farhan Haq, told reporters Monday.

 

The U.S. Embassy, which also received requests for help during the attack, "was not in a position to intervene," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters Monday. She said the U.S. ambassador instead contacted local government officials.

 

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that "during the fighting throughout the city, the U.S. Embassy in South Sudan responded to distress calls from the compound and urgently contacted South Sudanese government officials, who sent a response force to the site to stop the attack."

 

"We are deeply concerned that United Nations peacekeepers were apparently either incapable of or unwilling to respond to calls for help. We have requested and are awaiting the outcome of an investigation by the United Nations and demand swift corrective action in the event that these allegations are substantiated," she said in a statement.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-08-16

[Usernames]

Let'em rot.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Multicultural "Islam is a religion of peace" Muslim apologists, I await your replies.

[simple1]

1 hour ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Multicultural "Islam is a religion of peace" <snip>

 

The leader of the troops in the OP,  Salva Kiir, is Christian, his troops are either Christian or hold indigenous tribal beliefs. The guy he is fighting is also a Christian. "Christianity is a religion of peace" LOL

Edited August 16, 2016 by simple1

[Ralf61]

1 hour ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Multicultural "Islam is a religion of peace" Muslim apologists, I await your replies.

 

43 minutes ago, simple1 said:

 

The leader of the troops in the OP,  Salva Kiir, is Christian, his troops are either Christian or hold indigenous tribal beliefs. The guy he is fighting is also a Christian. "Christianity is a religion of peace" LOL

 

There is no peaceful religion, there is no such thing....

[RuamRudy]

2 hours ago, simple1 said:

 

The leader of the troops in the OP,  Salva Kiir, is Christian, his troops are either Christian or hold indigenous tribal beliefs. The guy he is fighting is also a Christian. "Christianity is a religion of peace" LOL

 

Some of our posters clearly follow the Trump / Giuliani school of brainwashing - repeat a falsehood frequently enough and with enough conviction and it eventually becomes the truth: "Giuliani Claims There Were No Terror Attacks On US Soil Before Obama".

 

OMGImInPattaya, I am awaiting your reply to simple1 with enthusiasm.

[Cory1848]

3 hours ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Multicultural "Islam is a religion of peace" Muslim apologists, I await your replies.

 

Here's your reply: The article is about South Sudan. More than 60 percent of South Sudanese are Christian, including the two ethnic groups fighting each other there, the Dinka and the Nuer. An additional 30 percent follow traditional African religions. Barely 6 percent of the country is Muslim.

I’m reminded of the plight of Sikhs in the US, attacked because they wear turbans by ignorant people who jump to the conclusion that that means they’re Muslim.

[ilostmypassword]

3 hours ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Multicultural "Islam is a religion of peace" Muslim apologists, I await your replies.

I'm only sorry that Simple 1 and Cory1848 beat me to it.  I can't speak for them, but I await your reply.  Somehow, I doubt it will be forthcoming.

[halloween]

If I was was to post a derogatory comment on the actions of these black Africans, I would most likely be accused of racism. OTOH they kill each other because they belong to a different tribe. I very much doubt that I could tell the difference.

[ilostmypassword]

20 minutes ago, halloween said:

If I was was to post a derogatory comment on the actions of these black Africans, I would most likely be accused of racism. OTOH they kill each other because they belong to a different tribe. I very much doubt that I could tell the difference.

Whereas you would have no problem telling the difference between Germans,Czechs . Poles, and Hungarians? What's your point?

Edited August 16, 2016 by ilostmypassword
clarification

[Cory1848]

25 minutes ago, halloween said:

If I was was to post a derogatory comment on the actions of these black Africans, I would most likely be accused of racism. OTOH they kill each other because they belong to a different tribe. I very much doubt that I could tell the difference.

 

Perhaps a comment on the behavior of troops who are neither trained nor disciplined and who receive little or no pay would be more pertinent. The white tribes who fought each other in what used to be Yugoslavia in the 1990s behaved no better.

[DoctorG]

The UN is useless.

[Baerboxer]

And once again, the brave UN Peacekeeping forces cower in their barracks and do nothing, zilch, even show the slightest interest. What a joke the Blue Beret is.

[metisdead]

Offensive posts and offensive posts and replies have been removed.

[Rod Gold]

 U.N. peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond!

 

Disgraceful and (adjective) deplorable.

 

Probably need more money to give them courage.

[thaihome]

2 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

And once again, the brave UN Peacekeeping forces cower in their barracks and do nothing, zilch, even show the slightest interest. What a joke the Blue Beret is.

Well, it's a tough job and the people on the line get paid very poorly.  Would you risk your life in this situation?  Are you going to stand there with your M-16 and take on 80 to 100 drunk hard core armed combat veterans that likely could give a shit if they die? Easy to sit there at your computer and make snide remarks.

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The UN forces assigned there have an official mission and assignment, and that includes protecting the locals in their area from human rights abuses.

 

If the countries stationing troops there under the U.N. banner aren't willing to fulfill their responsibilities, then they shouldn't be there at all. And from the OP report, it doesn't sound like they would have been outnumbered by the attackers.

 

Troops  Ethiopia, China, and Nepal. Do they even understand the meaning of the term "human rights"?  I doubt it.

 

[thaihome]

Agreed, they may not understand human rights, but they certainly understand dying. So easy for some to be critical of troops from developing countries not being willing to die.

If the Aid workers there actually thought the UN troops were going to die for them, they had a very naive view of the situation. 

 

I do feel very bad for the people raped and hurt, but blaming the UN for it is a serous mistake. The blame goes to the SPLM for not controlling their so called soldiers. 

TH 

[ThaiByNight]

Sadly, someone politiziced this tragedy to bash Trump & Giuliani. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, thaihome said:

Agreed, they may not understand human rights, but they certainly understand dying. So easy for some to be critical of troops from developing countries not being willing to die.

If the Aid workers there actually thought the UN troops were going to die for them, they had a very naive view of the situation. 

 

I do feel very bad for the people raped and hurt, but blaming the UN for it is a serous mistake. The blame goes to the SPLM for not controlling their so called soldiers. 

TH 

 

They're armed peacekeepers. Don't tell me that if they're faced with violence and threatened loss of life right under their noses, that their orders and mission calls for them to do nothing.

 

Part of being a soldier means facing the prospect of having to fight and potentially die in combat. You seem to want to portray them as uniformed crossing guards or something vs. actual military soldiers, the latter being what they supposedly are.

 

If they didn't want to be actual soldiers, then what the **** are they doing in their respective countries' armed forces? 

 

They had a mission from the U.N. and their respective countries sent them to carry out that mission. It's pretty clear that they simply failed to carry out that mission in a most blatant way in this instance -- unless some new and very different facts come to light here.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pdaz]

The whole continent is an abject failure. It should be quarantined and abandoned until they either grow tired of conflict or manage to evolve into something better than primitive tribal murderers.

Untold billions of aid money, help, education and assistance wasted. It is like Europe in the dark ages but they have modern weapons, phones and transport. Worse we grant them entry to Europe and allow them to bring their disease, violence, barbaric religious practices and tribalism with them. You have to wonder if Africa will ever have good governance and a stable future.

[soc]

l see that my post has been removed.

l guess that some people don't like the truth.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Si Thea01]

5 hours ago, ThaiByNight said:

Sadly, someone politiziced this tragedy to bash Trump & Giuliani. 

 

Wholeheartedly agree.  Shows the mindset of some, very limited I would say if one has to try and deflect from the reporting of the actual  barbarian traits that some of these inhuman morons exhibit when they rape and murder innocents. Many things could be said of the other side but I will not bring myself to another's certain low standards.

[Kiwiken]

You may criticize UN Soldiers. We do not know what equipment they have. My understanding is in south Sudan they are lightly Armed. Remember even in Yugoslavia and Somalia where they had heavier support they were unable to intervene to stop massacres at Srebrenica or in Mogadishu. Yes they are there to protect civilians but they are also supposed to be a deterrence not a combat force. It was not that long ago that NZ peacekeepers found themselves ambushed and having to leave a fallen comrade in East Timor in a clash with a Pro Indonesian militia. Peace Keeping is not easy and should be seen as putting your Soldiers and Police on the ground with One Arm tied behind their backs. They are there to keep the peace not enforce it.

[Si Thea01]

1 minute ago, Kiwiken said:

You may criticize UN Soldiers. We do not know what equipment they have. My understanding is in south Sudan they are lightly Armed. Remember even in Yugoslavia and Somalia where they had heavier support they were unable to intervene to stop massacres at Srebrenica or in Mogadishu. Yes they are there to protect civilians but they are also supposed to be a deterrence not a combat force. It was not that long ago that NZ peacekeepers found themselves ambushed and having to leave a fallen comrade in East Timor in a clash with a Pro Indonesian militia. Peace Keeping is not easy and should be seen as putting your Soldiers and Police on the ground with One Arm tied behind their backs. They are there to keep the peace not enforce it.

 

Just one question.  How do you keep the peace without enforcing it?

[Kiwiken]

13 minutes ago, Si Thea01 said:

 

Just one question.  How do you keep the peace without enforcing it?

How do you enforce it you are not the majority military and when open fighting breaks out all you can do is hunker down and wait until some form of calm comes back. While things are relatively calm you can do your job but if it explodes basically you are powerless. And that is a fact

[Si Thea01]

38 minutes ago, Kiwiken said:

How do you enforce it you are not the majority military and when open fighting breaks out all you can do is hunker down and wait until some form of calm comes back. While things are relatively calm you can do your job but if it explodes basically you are powerless. And that is a fact

 

If those are the facts and given the Principles of UN peacekeeping, then what a waste of oxygen this group is and they should delete peace-keeping from their name as they are gutless wonders and obviously, like the rest of the UN, a toothless tiger.  Ruining the world whilst they keep their long noses firmly embedded in the trough whilst trying to implement world governance. 

[RuamRudy]

9 hours ago, ThaiByNight said:

Sadly, someone politiziced this tragedy to bash Trump & Giuliani. 

 

I apologise if my comparison was too subtle for you, (although it did give you a wonderful opportunity to express fake outrage) however I make no apology for my post. I will try to make it clearer though - politics is now about telling lies and hoping gullible people fall for them. The two jokers I referred to are merely an example of a growing problem.

 

In the context of this post, I was lamenting the attempt by one regular commentator to attribute this incident to Islam when there exists absolutely no evidence to do so, and indeed, all the facts show that he was wide of the mark.

 

 

[RuamRudy]

8 hours ago, Pdaz said:

The whole continent is an abject failure. It should be quarantined and abandoned until they either grow tired of conflict or manage to evolve into something better than primitive tribal murderers.

Untold billions of aid money, help, education and assistance wasted. It is like Europe in the dark ages but they have modern weapons, phones and transport. Worse we grant them entry to Europe and allow them to bring their disease, violence, barbaric religious practices and tribalism with them. You have to wonder if Africa will ever have good governance and a stable future.

 

We (the empire building west) spent hundreds of years perpetrating unimaginable horrors on the continent, raping, looting and pillaging everything that we could possibly profit from. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that our current quality of life is partially build on the blood of Africans of the last two centuries. In my opinion, the first world owes it to Africa to make amends for the barbarity we showed it.

[RuamRudy]

3 hours ago, Si Thea01 said:

 

Wholeheartedly agree.  Shows the mindset of some, very limited I would say if one has to try and deflect from the reporting of the actual  barbarian traits that some of these inhuman morons exhibit when they rape and murder innocents. Many things could be said of the other side but I will not bring myself to another's certain low standards.

 

Then you need to read the context of my post and those it was replying to, and try a little harder to understand my point. OMGImInPattaya made a statement that Islam was the root cause of this tragedy when, in fact, there were no Muslims involved. I was merely pointing out that this tactic of repeating lies until they become considered fact was a worrying trend in politics, and gave a current example of exactly that low minded con.