UN wants prosecutions for South Sudan war crimes

It dismissed arguments that indisciplined soldiers might be to blame saying both the government and rebel “military hierarchies functioned effectively in terms of issuance, transmission, and respect for orders”.

The commission said its investigations had focussed on incidents where it could make “the case for individual command responsibility for widespread or systematic attacks on civilians.”

The commission also found widespread looting and deliberate ethnic attacks on entire communities and villages with the “destruction of dwellings… on an industrial scale.”

“There is a clear pattern of ethnic persecution for the most part by government forces who should be pursued for crimes against humanity,” said Andrew Clapham, one of the commissioners.

Describing South Sudan’s justice system as “dysfunctional” the commission called on the AU to establish the ‘Hybrid Court’, modelled on tribunals in Sierra Leone, Cambodia and elsewhere.

“There is sufficient evidence to conclude that… the parties to the conflict are deliberately targeting civilians on the basis of their ethnic identity and by means of killings, abductions, rape and sexual violence, as well as the destruction of villages and looting. These acts constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the commission’s report said.