...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
rights chief has said, warning that atrocities continue with a seventh ceasefire broken.
| It's like South Sudan is a giant frat house or something... |
Simonovic, speaking after visiting areas that have seen some of the worst fighting in the past 13 months of war, said he had received the "simply appalling" report of fighters embarking on a campaign of rape.
"This is absolutely intolerable," he said, without giving further details as to which of the multiple armed forces was responsible.
| Did Theresa Sullivan intervene? |
Fighting erupted in South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused ousted deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup. It quickly spread from the capital Juba, triggering a cycle of retaliatory massacres across the country.
Zainab Bangura, UN envoy on sexual violence, said in October that the levels of rape in South Sudan were the worst she had ever seen, reporting horrific accounts of children and the elderly repeatedly raped.
UN chief
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
this week accused the leaders of putting their own interests above those of their people, after they agreed another ceasefire on Sunday but failed to reach a power-sharing deal.
Kiir and Machar have been set a March 5 deadline to strike a final full peace agreement, but similar previous deadlines have been repeatedly ignored.
Diplomats at peace talks in luxury hotels in Addis Ababa --
| Can't do peace talks from a hovel, chum... |
The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
has said the latest deal "made little significant progress" towards a final agreement.
More than two dozen armed forces -- from ragtag militia, to rebels from neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region, to Ugandan troops backing Kiir -- are all now fighting.
"In order to build sustainable peace, there needs to be much broader participation in the grinding of the peace processor," Simonovic added, calling for talks to also include representatives of all ethnic groups, as well as women, civil society groups and religious leaders.
| If that's how it's to be, they might as well go back to Sudanese control -- they'd have fewer rapacious rulers to pay for. |