Sudan mulls immunity for aid workers' kidnappers

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan is considering offering legal immunity to the kidnappers of two aid workers in Darfur as part of a new push to free the women during the holy month of Ramadan, a minister said on Monday.

Armed men seized the two women from Irish aid group GOAL in early July; the longest-running abduction in a new surge of kidnappings in Sudan's violent west.

The abductions have raised fears for the future of the internationally-funded aid effort in Darfur, already reeling from years of attacks on personnel, raids on compounds, and Khartoum's expulsion of 13 humanitarian organizations in March.

State minister for humanitarian affairs Abdel Baqi al-Jailani told Reuters he now knew the names of the eight kidnappers, who he said were members of a nomadic tribe in north Darfur seeking a ransom.

The government is negotiating with the abductors through senior members of their tribe who were planning to appeal to their Islamic sensibilities during Ramadan, he said.

"We have said what they have done is a crime. They should be punished ... But at this stage, our aim is to free the ladies. So we are trying to tell them that we are ready to negotiate ... forgiveness." By "forgiveness" he said he meant Sudan was ready to discuss the possibility of legal immunity for the kidnappers.

"Ramadan is a month of forgiveness, is a month of love, a month of worship," he said.

"It creates a spiritual environment around them (the kidnappers). At the end of the day they are human beings and they understand the suffering of the ladies ... So we expect that in such spiritual conditions, they will react positively."

Ramadan started on Aug 22 in Sudan and is due to end on or around Sept 19, depending on the sighting of the moon.

WOMEN IN "GOOD HEALTH"

The minister said sources close to the kidnappers' base continued to report the women were in good health.

"From the reports I received, the two ladies are OK. They have adapted themselves to their surroundings ... I must say they are very strong."

Al-Jailani dismissed as baseless reports in two local newspapers quoting unnamed security sources saying that the abducted women had married members of the kidnapping group.

GOAL, which earlier named the kidnapped women as Hilda Kawuki, 42, from Uganda, and Sharon Commins, 32, from Dublin, declined to comment further on Monday.

Kidnappings of foreign aid staff were almost unheard of in Darfur before March. Since then, two groups of foreign aid workers have been taken, one for three days, the other for more than three weeks -- before being released unharmed.

Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) this month said one of its international workers was seized during a raid on a compound in Chad, close to the country's border with Darfur.

Darfur rebels have accused Khartoum of masterminding the kidnappings, as part of a crackdown on aid groups which it accuses of supporting a war crimes case by the International Criminal Court against Sudan's president.

Sudan's government expelled 13 foreign groups and closed three local organizations in March saying they passed evidence to the Hague-based court.

Khartoum say the kidnappers are motivated purely by ransom money which it is determined not to pay.

The six-year Darfur conflict has pitted pro-government militias and troops against mostly non-Arab rebels, who took up arms in 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the region.

Estimates of the death toll range from 10,000 according to Khartoum, to 300,000 according to the United Nations.

(Editing by Jon Hemming)