AU again fails to release South Sudan atrocities report

Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information.

NEW YORK - The African Union’s Peace and Security Council has again stopped short of making public a report on the atrocities and human rights violations committed by both sides in the civil war in South Sudan.

The council held a four-hour meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Saturday night, from which heads of state emerged looking tense and tired.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who authored the report, was also in attendance.

South Sudan was represented by its deputy president James Wani Igga, while President Salva Kiir, did not travel to New York.

A source who attended the meeting said there was an initial misunderstanding over whether releasing the report would mean making it public, or merely giving it to the UN Security Council.

Some in the meeting believed it should be made public but the meeting eventually decided against it.

“We are just damaging ourselves if it’s secret,” an official who attended the meeting said.

The AU had been expected to release the report in January, but it decided to defer the release for fear that it would derail the sensitive peace negotiations at the time.

Human rights groups, like Human Rights Watch, have called for the report to be made public so that the atrocities can be exposed.

“The people and partners of South Sudan have been waiting for the AU report to help bring justice for the grave crimes of the past year,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at HRW.

“By shelving the report, the AU has left the people of South Sudan in the lurch.”

The report details massacres, rapes, and other crimes carried out in December 2013 and in 2014, during South Sudan’s civil war which dragged on for 21 months.

It was reportedly released only to Kiir in July, prompting an outcry by Machar’s supporters.

The UN is set to hold a high-level meeting on South Sudan on Tuesday to mobilise international support for the implementation of the fragile peace deal signed in August by both sides.

Other issues discussed by government leaders in the AU peace and security cluster included peace-keeping in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Western Sahara, and Burkina Faso.

The council was expected to release a communiqué later on Sunday.

- Africa News Agency