South Sudan military officers may have committed war crimes: U.N

NAIROBI (Reuters) - U.N. investigators said on Friday they had identified more than 40 South Sudanese military officers who may be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It was a sharp departure from previous U.N. reports that documented crimes but not perpetrators.

Oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from neighbouring Sudan in 2011 but slid into civil war in December 2013. More than 4 million people, a third of the population, have been uprooted by violence.

The investigators from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said their findings are based on interviews with hundreds of witnesses, satellite imagery and nearly 60,000 documents dating to the outbreak of the war.

Their report, released on Friday, makes the case for "individual command responsibility for widespread or systematic attacks on civilians" by senior military officers, including eight lieutenant generals, and by three state governors.

A government spokesman said they were willing to hold people to account for any crimes. "The government will prosecute anyone responsible for any crimes. This is a responsible government," foreign affairs spokesman Mawien Makol told Reuters.

Source: Yahoo News