U.N. Rights Report Accuses Sudan of Massacres, Torture

Government and rebel forces in Sudan have massacred thousands of civilians in indiscriminate killings and kidnaped children on a massive scale for use as slaves or soldiers, according to a new U.N. report.

The report released Thursday to the U.N. Human Rights Commission cited grim details of executions and torture in “ghost houses” in northern Sudan and deliberate bombing of civilian targets in war-shattered southern regions.

The report by Hungarian expert Gaspar Biro is scheduled to be discussed this month during the commission’s annual six-week session.

Biro painted a desperate picture of the plight of “hundreds of thousands” of children, especially in the Christian and animist south, where rebels have waged a 10-year-long war against the Muslim-dominated north.

In its yearly human rights report, the U.S. State Department last week described the situation in the vast nation as “dismal.”

Aid workers have said that renewed government offensives near the southern border with Uganda have caused many casualties and forced tens of thousands of refugees to flee.

Biro criticized Sudan’s military fundamentalist government for its application of Islamic law. He said the country’s legal code--which provides for execution, amputation or flogging depending on the crime--and the government’s treatment of women violate international conventions.

The charges prompted a furious response from the Sudanese government, which accused Biro of blaspheming Islam.