News Article by REUTERS posted on August 01, 2008 at 17:11:01: EST (-5 GMT)
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Darfur rebels unhappy at U.N. show of concern on ICC KHARTOUM, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Darfur rebels on Friday criticized a U.N. Security Council resolution linking a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to African concerns at a move to indict Sudan's president for war crimes. But the rebels said it was no victory for Khartoum and urged the world body to support the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which last month sought an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the remote west. "They should not have linked the security and the legal issues in Darfur - this is international justice," Abdallah Harran, political secretary of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction led by Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur told Reuters from Darfur. The African Union and Arab League have expressed their support for Sudan saying the ICC move could threaten the peace process. Rights groups hailed it as a blow to impunity. Sudan and its allies had wanted the resolution on renewing the mandate of the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) to also suspend the investigation of the ICC but the compromise was the promise to discuss it. "They haven't made a full commitment to really say that they we are going to delay the court's work," said Sherif Harir from the powerful SLA Unity faction. "It's not a victory for Khartoum." JEM's deputy chief of staff, Suleiman Sandal, told Reuters from Darfur the Security Council should regard the concern of Arab and African countries in the context of their own fears of being brought to account by international justice for crime against their own people. "All these countries are dictatorships and many violate human rights and commit crimes against their people," he said. "They are afraid also to be accused and go to the court." The United States abstained on the resolution because of the reference to African concerns on the ICC move against Bashir, and the rebels joined rights groups in their praise for Washington's protest. The U.N. Security Council can suspend the ICC investigation for 12 months at a time if they felt it was detrimental to peace in the region. But Western nations have shown reluctance to make such a move. International experts estimate some 200,000 died and 2.5 million were driven from their homes after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilized mostly Arab militia to quell the revolt. Last year the ICC indicted a militia leader and a junior government minister for war crimes. Khartoum refused to hand them over.
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