S. Sudan leader to hold talks with rebels

South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar are to hold direct talks on Friday, after the United Nations said both sides in the country's brutal civil war have likely carried out crimes against humanity.

Warning of "countless" gross human rights violations, the UN peacekeeping mission said "there are reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed during the conflict by both government and opposition forces".

The UN's report was released on Thursday amid preparations for the talks between Kiir and Machar in the Ethiopian capital, aimed at stemming almost five months of bloodshed.

Kiir arrived in Addis Ababa early on Friday and Machar arrived on Thursday. While both leaders speak of peace, fierce fighting still rages and the United Nations has warned of the risk of severe famine and genocide.

With a January cease fire in tatters, the UN report said that "fighting continues with little hope that civilians will see any respite from the relentless violence".

'Killed like chickens'

"Countless incidents of gross violations of human rights and serious violations of humanitarian law have occurred during the conflict in South Sudan," said the report, based on more than 900 interviews with victims and witnesses.

"These include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, rape, the direct targeting of civilians, often along ethnic lines, as well as ill-treatment and the destruction of property. These are crimes for which perpetrators bear individual criminal responsibility."

The conflict, which started as a personal rivalry between Kiir and Machar, has seen the army divide along ethnic lines, pitting members of Kiir's Dinka tribe against Machar's Nuer.

The United States this week unveiled its first sanctions in response to the "unthinkable violence", targeting one military leader from each side.

The war has claimed thousands - and possibly tens of thousands - of lives, with over 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes.

The UN report detailed horrific killings, including in the first days after fighting broke out in the capital Juba on Dec 15.

One Nuer man recounted to UN rights workers how army troops raided houses and shot civilians in the city.

"Nuer were being killed like chickens," he was quoted as saying.

"Witness after witness recounted horror as they watched security forces enter their communities, sometimes in tanks and with heavy weaponry, and round up their relatives and neighbors," the report added.

AFP-REUTERS

(China Daily 05/10/2014 page7)