GENEVA, Switzerland, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Flagrant violations of international law in the Sudanese border state of South Kordofan mustn't go unpunished, the top U.N. human rights official said.
South Sudan became an independent country July 9 as part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended Sudan's civil war. Issues such as oil revenue and border clashes, however, continue to threaten to undermine the agreement.
U.N. officials had said there was evidence that at least 150 bodies were discovered in the border region. The bodies bore the characteristic skin color of Nuban descent, suggesting the killings were ethnically motivated.
A 12-page report from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documents serious rights violations near the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. The report accuses the north's armed forces and the south's army of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other atrocities.
"These flagrant and repeated violations of international conventions as well as specific agreements with the government of Sudan concerning the privileges and immunities under which the U.N. operates are an extremely serious matter which cannot be left unresolved or unpunished," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in a statement.
The OHCHR noted that it couldn't verify reports of mass graves or the alleged use of chemical weapons. It blamed much of the violence on the Sudanese army.
Pillay added that it was "vital" that human rights groups gain access to the area to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations of violations of international human rights law.
