Attacks in Sudan Could Amount to War Crimes

Attacks in Sudan Could Amount to War Crimes, U.N. Report Says

"An unpublished report from the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Sudan has detailed a welter of violence erupting in an important border province, including widespread aerial bombardments that kill civilians, executions, possible mass graves and attacks on churches.

The report emerged as the newly minted Republic of South Sudan, which officially seceded from the northern part of the country on July 9, was admitted to the United Nations on Thursday. Its designated ambassador, Ezekiel Gatkuoth, broke out a few jubilant dance moves as the new country’s striped flag, with its distinctive yellow star, rose alongside those of the other 192 member states.

In the speeches marking the occasion, representatives from both Sudan and South Sudan pledged to work peacefully to untangle the complex issues remaining, including demarcating the border between them, sharing oil and determining citizenship.

“We and our brothers in South Sudan have left bitterness and the wounds of war behind us and we’re looking forward to the future,” Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, the Sudanese envoy to the United Nations, told the General Assembly.

Yet the new United Nations report suggests that in its effort to stamp out any lingering rebellion in South Kordofan province, which borders South Sudan but will remain entirely in the territory of Sudan, the northern government based in Khartoum has carried out widespread human rights violations that could amount to war crimes"