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| Africa Horn |
| South Sudan Expels U.N. Rights Official |
| 2012-11-05 |
| [An Nahar] South Sudan said Sunday it has expelled a U.N. official who was carrying out a probe on the human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... situation in the fledgling state, accusing her of producing "unjustified" reports. "It's the first person on human rights to be (declared) persona non grata," government front man Barnaba Marial Benjamin said. The U.N. official has been "reporting on human rights issues that she could not verify and has been publishing without justifications. This is unethical," said the front man. The U.N.'s peacekeeping mission in South Sudan confirmed the expulsion. Neither Juba nor the U.N. named the official. "The order is in breach of the legal obligations of the government of the Republic of South Sudan under the Charter of the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... ," said Hilde Johnson, special representative of the U.N. to the country which gained independence in July 2011. She said she has sought explanations from Juba. "Human rights monitoring, investigation and reporting, and building capacity, is a core element of the mandate of UNMISS which must be protected," Johnson said. In the statement, the U.N. mission also noted that "human rights violations and discrimination were at the core of the South Sudanese struggle during decades of civil war". |
| Posted by:Fred |