Situation in Southern Kordofan

Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, on the Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Southern Kordofan, August 16, 2011

The United States welcomes the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the increasingly dire situation in Southern Kordofan.  We are deeply disturbed by the reports of extrajudicial killings, attacks on civilians, mass graves, arbitrary detentions, abductions, house to house searches, forced displacements, and other clear violations of humanitarian law.  We strongly support Commissioner Pillay’s recommendations, including immediate, unhindered access for humanitarian assistance and ongoing human rights monitoring as well as for an independent inquiry to hold perpetrators of violence to account.  We urge all members of the UN Security Council to join us in pressing for implementation of these recommendations.