20110817
Reuters
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan said on Tuesday it would form its own committee to assess the human rights situation in its conflict-ridden Southern Kordofan region, a day after the U.N. called for a probe into reports of violence and abuses there.

Tensions have flared in the state -- which borders South Sudan and holds most of Sudan's known oil reserves -- after South Sudan seceded last month, taking its oilfields with it.

Many people in Southern Kordofan sided with South Sudan during a 20-year civil war and tens of thousands have fled since fighting broke out there in June between Sudan's army and fighters, many of them from the region's ethnic Nuba group.

A report by the U.N. human rights office documented alleged violations in state capital Kadugli and the surrounding Nuba mountains including extrajudicial killings, illegal detention, enforced disappearances, attacks against civilians, looting of homes and mass displacement.

Sudan's Justice Minister Mohamed Bushara Dosa issued a decree to form a committee to "gather information and facts, visit sites of the displaced and interview them as well as meet with government authorities and citizens" in Southern Kordofan, state news agency SUNA said on Tuesday.

The U.N. said in its report, released on Monday, that the allegations "if substantiated, could amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes".

Sudan's government dismissed the report as "unfounded" and "malicious".