New UNMISS head visits Bor, praises Indian peacekeepers

30 Sep 2014

New UNMISS head visits Bor, praises Indian peacekeepers

29 September 2014 - During her first visit to Jonglei State since assuming office a month ago, the new UNMISS chief praised the Indian contingent today in the capital Bor for their role in protecting civilians.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Ellen Margaret Loj noted that the Indian’s task had included protecting the displaced as well as helping to construct and establish Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites.

“You have helped extricate unarmed civilians from the threat to the security of the sites ... and subsequently provided the vital force protection required,” Ms. Loj said.

She said the Indian contingent had helped the mission in volatile times by being versatile, especially when defending 5,000 occupants of that site alone early this year.

The SRSG was speaking at a memorial event for seven Indian soldiers who had lost their lives while protecting civilians and humanitarian workers in Jonglei’s Akobo and Pibor counties.

She awarded UN medals to the contingent in recognition of its outstanding work in South Sudan for the past 10 months.

The UN medal is an international decoration awarded to those who participate in joint international military and police operations, such as peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance or disaster relief.

She encouraged the contingent to extend security beyond the camps to include key areas of local towns and villages to facilitate the return of IDPs to their homes and encourage a gradual resumption of peaceful, daily lives.

She added that doing so would contribute to successful implementation of the mission’s Protection of Civilians mandate, which in turn would lead to the eventual return of peace.

Ms. Loj commended the Indian medical team for penetrating Jonglei villages to treat people and their livestock, noting that it had treated some 19, 579 humans and 14, 792 animals in the last 10 months.

She criticized the contingent, however, for lacking female soldiers, encouraging it to bring more to complement the one woman medical officer.

“Having more females in the security forces sends a signal that security is for both women and men,” Ms. Loj said.

She urged the soldiers to exercise good leadership to sustain their good name, saying that a good character of a person can be ruined just by one mistake of misconduct.

“It is our individual and collective duty to safeguard the intrinsic dignity of the people we are here to protect,” she stressed.

SRSG Loj also visited Jonglei Governor John Kong Nyuon and briefed him about the new mission mandate, highlighting that peace and security in the state was her priority.

She lauded Mr. Nyoun’s plan to initiate community peace and reconciliation conferences, noting that such meetings should target grassroots people. But she said reconciliation and accountability must be separated, if impunity is to be minimized.

Governor Nyoun said his state would fully cooperate to ensure that the national government’s efforts in investigating gross human rights abuses bore fruits in his state.