Associated Press
U.N.-backed human rights investigators on Friday urged the creation of an “independent and impartial force” to protect civilians in Sudan’s war, blaming both sides for war crimes including murder, mutilation and torture and warning that foreign governments which arm and finance them could be complicit. The fact-finding team, in their first report since being created by the U.N.’s main human rights body in October, also accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which are fighting Sudan’s army, and its allies of crimes against humanity, including rape, sexual slavery and persecution on ethnic or gender grounds. The findings from the team mandated by the 47-country Human Rights Council come as more than 10 million people have been driven from their homes — including more than 2 million to neighboring countries — and famine has broken out in one large camp for displaced people in Darfur.