The army’s Special General Mobile Court Martial sitting in Torit in Eastern Equatoria State on Friday convicted four SSPDF soldiers of various crimes and sentenced them to serve jail terms from a few months to two years.
The court heard 1o cases of gross violations including murder, adultery, breach of trust, and attempted murder.
The mobile court also demoted one SSPDF officer from the rank of captain to sergeant for breaching military command.
Brigadier General Thon Khamis Chan Ayiik, the president of the court, while reading the verdicts in Torit said 4 soldiers were convicted for grave violations.
“Today we handled 10 cases which include four murder cases one adultery case, one mistrust case, and three other cases. There is one officer, a captain, who killed one of his soldiers in Kor English, and other murders happened in Kor Romla and Magwi,” he said. Some of the grave violations happened within the barracks. Some of the violators were sentenced to two years imprisonment, some one year and others to serve a few months and one is to serve two weeks.”
Meanwhile, Major General Angom Ungom Chut, the SSPDF’s Division Seven commander, said the army is committed to holding soldiers accountable and urged them to desist from unlawful acts.
“We are not above the law and even those who rebel are not supposed to be rewarded but tried because these are murderers who went and killed innocent people.” He said. “If you go and fight the government, you are a criminal and have done a very bad thing.”
On her part, Doris Poni Mogga, of UNMISS’ rule of law division, said the UN will continue supporting mobile courts in the state to ensure armed forces are held accountable for crimes.
“Our intention as UNMISS is to ensure accountability and transparency within the South Sudan military and armed forces. We opted to support military justice because most times the military personnel have been accused of committing grave human rights violations and as a result, UNMISS decided to support the military justice directorate,” she explained. “We have been doing this to ensure that there is accountability within the SSPDF because there is a big gap. Most times, citizens are not aware that the soldiers are accountable.”
Eunice Nakiru, a representative from the Eastern Equatoria State Woman Association, applauded the convictions, saying it will build confidence and trust among citizens.
“This tells citizens that if anybody was killed, beaten, injured or robbed by soldiers, the law there and you can report them,” she said. “No soldier has the right to kill a civilian and the law is now active and this will reduce crimes committed by soldiers.”
Source: Radio Tamazuj