[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
warned Thursday of a risk of genocide in South Sudan if the country's four-month-old civil war is not stopped.
"There are very disturbing leading indicators of the kind of ethnic, tribal, targeted nationalistic killings taking place that raise serious questions," Kerry told news hounds.
"Were they to continue in the way they've been going (they) could really present a very serious challenge to the international community with respect to the questions of genocide," he added.
Fears of both genocide and famine in war-torn South Sudan dominated Kerry's agenda Thursday, one day after arriving in Æthiopia to launch an Africa tour focusing on the continent's most brutal conflicts.
"Those who are responsible for assassinations based on ethnicity or nationality have to be brought to justice, and we are actively considering sanctions against those who commit human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
violations and obstruct humanitarian assistance," he said.
Outrage is mounting over the scale of killings, with both government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels backing ex-vice president Riek Machar implicated in massacres, rapes, attacks on U.N. bases and recruiting child soldiers.