5 August 2015 - Sustainable peace, reconciliation and national healing cannot be achieved in South Sudan without any accountability for crimes committed, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide said in a statement today.

“We need to end the cycle of impunity that is fuelling the conflict,” said Under-Secretary-General (USG) Adama Dieng. “If not, we shall be failing the South Sudanese people, and failing once again in our responsibility to protect our populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

Declaring that “amnesty is not an option”, Mr. Dieng said those who oppose accountability could be seen to be indirectly abetting the atrocities by protecting perpetrators.

He noted that forces allied to both parties to the conflict continue to inflict suffering and despair on the South Sudanese people as a result of their unwillingness to take the necessary steps to end the civil war.

He also listed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law since fighting started in December 2013, including extrajudicial killings, mass rape, torture, arbitrary detention, forced displacement and attacks on protected personnel and sites, including UN personnel and property.

“The brutality and cruelty of these attacks defies imagination,” said the USG. “Given the widespread and systematic nature of attacks against civilians, some may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and those responsible must be held accountable.”

Commending efforts by the international community in supporting “endless rounds of talks”, Mr. Dieng who met President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar in April 2014, noted that the talks had failed to produce meaningful results.

“We have to ask ourselves whether the lives of the South Sudanese matter to Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, or to their neighbours, the regional leadership or the rest of the world,” he said.

Urging the African Union to make its Commission of Inquiry report public and implement its recommendations, Mr. Dieng reiterated that ignoring the need for justice would not solve conflict in the country.

“The mantra of “African solutions for African problems” sounds hollow when it is not backed up by action” he said. “Africa must stand up for its people. Leaders who turn against their own and inflict on them the kind of suffering we have witnessed in South Sudan lack the moral integrity that is a requisite for leadership.”

Following a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on 4 August, U.S. President Barack Obama said that the great progress and hope when South Sudan gained independence had been squandered by the warring parties.

“Our goal now is to make sure that by 17 August, there’s an agreement for them to stop the bloodshed and to move forward in an inclusive government,” he said. “If they miss that target, then I think it’s our view that it’s going to be necessary for us to move forward with a different plan and recognize that those leaders are incapable of creating the peace that is required.”

Mr. Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN said the organization was working very hard with members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union so that the 17 August summit meeting of IGAD will be able to have adoption of the agreement between the parties.