Group: Sudan crackdown may amount to crime against humanity

Human Rights Watch: Sudan’s deadly crackdown against pro-democracy protesters may have been crime against humanity

A leading human rights group says the deadly crackdown in Sudan against pro-democracy protesters in June may have amounted to a crime against humanity.

Human Rights Watch said on Monday that Sudan’s military rulers at the time planned the violent dispersal of a sit-in in the capital, Khartoum. The sit-in was the cornerstone in the uprising that led to the military’s overthrow of autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April.

HRW is urging Sudan’s new transitional government to undertake an “independent and transparent” investigation of those violations.

The protest movement says at least 128 people were killed in the crackdown. The death toll provided by authorities at the time was 87, including 17 at the sit-in.

Sudanese prosecutors in a July investigation said some within the security forces had exceeded orders.