HRW accuses South Sudan troops of crimes

The accusations from Human Rights Watch were published in a 42-page report, "They burned it all: Destruction of Villages, Killings and Sexual Violence in South Sudan's Unity State."

The report, made available on Tuesday, was based on more than 170 interviews in June and July with survivors and witnesses. More than 125 those who spoke had been displaced from their homes by either government troops or militia allied to the Bul Nuer ethnic group.

The report documented some 60 unlawful killings of civilians, including women children and the elderly.

"Government-aligned forces carried out gruesome killings and widespread rapes and burned countless homes as they swept across large parts of Unity State," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The devastating offensive in Unity State is the latest in a conflict characterized by shocking disregard for civilian life."

Many of the killings were said to have taken place in towns and villages, but some of the deaths were in forests and swamps to which people had fled in anticipation of the violence. Soldiers were said to have destroyed food stores and seeds that were to be used for agriculture.

The deaths were said to have happened in April 2015, when the government launched an offensive to recapture Unity State from rebels. The campaign displaced at least 100,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Beaten with sticks

In many cases the attackers faced no resistance, with local men - aware they would be targeted - having fled. HRW said it had documented 65 cases of rape, including gang rape. The women - many of whom whom say they were beaten with sticks and rope - were also forced to carry looted property with them to the Bul Nuer homeland.

The number of documented cases "almost certainly represents only a fraction of the total," the group said.

Homes were burned down and fleeing civilians were pursued and killed. At least two witnesses said they had seen people run over by tanks, which had reversed to ensure that they were dead. HRW said it had recorded the killings "of civilian women and men, including children and the elderly, some by hanging others by shooting, or being burned alive."

"Brutal attacks on fleeing civilians combined with widespread burning of villages, food, and other items that people need to survive suggests that the government's aim was to forcibly displace people from their homes," HRW Africa director Daniel Bekele said in a statement.

Government promises counter report

HRW urged the UN Security Council to expend targeted individual sanctions against army commanders and others deemed to have been responsible. It also called for an arms embargo to be imposed on all parties involved, and for South Sudan to investigate the crimes, or for the International Criminal Court to be involved.

The South Sudanese government has told DW that the accusations from HRW were baseless, with a spokesman saying his government would produce a counter report.

"We are determined and serious on the issue of maintaining and upholding human rights in South Sudan," said government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny.

The civil war in South Sudan began in September 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup. It soon descended into an ethnic war of of tit-for-tat killings, involving Kiir's Dinka tribe and Machar's Nuer. South Sudan became independent in 2011.

rc/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)