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July 18, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Acts committed by the Sudan army and its allied militias during localized violence in South Kordofan State may amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, a UN report has said, recommending a probe into the alleged atrocities by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
- International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo speaks during a press conference at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 28, 2011 (AP Photos)
Violent clashes erupted on June 5 in Sudan’s oil-producing state of South Kordofan between north Sudan army known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)
According to a report prepared by the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) on the human rights situation during South Kordofan violence, the fighting appears to have been triggered by SAF’s attempt to forcibly disarm SPLA members, in contrast with SAF’s claims that the fighting broke out after SPLA members raided a local police station and stole small arms.
The report accused both parties to the conflict of engaging in acts against civilians, but it singled out SAF’s conduct as “especially egregious,” saying that the army and its allied paramilitary forces “have targeted members and supporters of the SPLM/A, most of whom are Nubans and other dark skinned people.”
UNMIS report documented a wide-range of atrocities it said were committed, particularly by SAF, against civilians as well as UNMIS staff.
According to the report, these violations of national and international law include aerial bombardments, forced displacement, abductions; house-to-house searches; arbitrary arrests and detentions; targeted killings and summary executions.
It also details reports of mass graves; systematic destruction of dwellings and attacks on churches. The UN previously estimated that more than 70,000 have been displaced by South Kordofan fighting.
The report says that the violence has resulted in a significant loss of lives, highlighting thirty-seven individual incidents of extrajudicial killings or death resulting from attacks on civilians.
It further said that the mission had received credible reports that extrajudicial killings have targeted people in Southern Kordofan who are affiliated with the SPLA and SPLM, most of whom are Nuba people.
The report said that the acts it described may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under national and international laws.
A number of recommendations were made by the report, including that the UN Security Council “mandates the establishment of a commission of inquiry or other appropriate investigative authority, including the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the violence in Southern Kordofan and violations of human rights and humanitarian laws and to identify the perpetrators or those who bear the greatest responsibility, with the view to bringing them to justice.”
If the report recommendation is adopted by the UNSC, it will be the second time that the ICC has been authorized to get involved in Sudan. The Hagie-based court has already issued arrest warrants for three Sudanese individuals, including president Al-Bashir and South Kordofan governor Ahmad Harun on account of the atrocities committed by government forces in the western region of Darfur.
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