Southern Kordofan lies in Sudan but borders the newly independent South Sudan. According to a statement issued Tuesday by the UN News Centre, a preliminary report produced jointly by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the former UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), describes wide range of alleged violations of international law in the town of Kadugli, as well as in the surrounding Nuba Mountains, after fighting broke out on June 5, between the SAF and the Sudan People's Liberation Army North (SPLA-N).
It also describes aerial bombardments on civilian areas in Kadugli and elsewhere in Southern Kordofan, which, it says, have resulted in "significant loss of life."
Reported violations included "extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, enforced disappearances, attacks against civilians, looting of civilian homes and destruction of property," as well as massive displacement.
"The SAF regularly conducted aerial bombardments in the Nuba Mountains, and in several towns and villages populated by the Nuba," the report states.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is quoted in the statement as saying that what the report suggests "has been happening in Southern Kordofan is so serious that it is essential there is an independent, thorough and objective inquiry with the aim of holding perpetrators to account."
On June 6, 2005, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, opened investigation in Darfur Region in Sudan after the UN Security Council referred to the Court the matter through its Resolution 1593 on March 31, 2005.
Three arrest warrants against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and two other government leaders, Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb have been issued and several calls for cooperation have been made by the Court and its prosecutor.
The Sudanese Government has consistently refused to cooperate with the Court and the Security Council in this regard.
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© Hirondelle News Agency