Darfur rebels condemn AU on ICC warrant

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur rebels accused the African Union of bias on Tuesday after it said it would urge the U.N. Security Council to suspend any warrant to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes.

The International Criminal Court has sought an arrest warrant for Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, which rights groups have hailed but some analysts warned it could derail the fragile peace process in the country.

The African Union's Peace and Security Council on Monday said it would urge the United Nations to invoke powers granted to it by the ICC's charter to delay any warrant for 12 months, which can then be renewed.

Djibril Bassole, the joint U.N.-AU Darfur mediator made his first visit to Sudan on Sunday to try to revive a stalled peace process. But Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said his rebel group would no longer recognize AU efforts to mediate a peace process.

"The African Union is a biased organization and is protecting dictators and neglecting the African people," Ibrahim, head of JEM, the most militarily powerful rebel group, told Reuters from Darfur.

Sherif Harir, a senior member of the Sudan Liberation Army Unity faction, also told Reuters that for any AU mediation to succeed, it would have to answer why it had taken such a stance.

"The AU by so doing has indicated to the people of Darfur that they can die and it's not as important as protecting a president who has taken power by military coup," he said.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilized mostly Arab militia to quell the revolt which now stand accused of atrocities including widespread rape, murder and looting.

BASHIR TO VISIT DARFUR

Bashir will travel to Darfur on Wednesday for a two-day visit to open development projects, his first trip to the region since the ICC move.

Presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadul told state news agency Sudanese Media Centre that the visit would be part of the process to bring peace to western Sudan, where international experts estimate that some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes since 2003.

The Army of the Democratic Popular Front, an Arab rebel group, also condemned the AU stance, saying it knew ex-militia members who would be ready to testify at any Bashir trial on being ordered by the government to commit atrocities.

"We support the ICC," the group's secretary-general Osama Mohamed al-Hassan told Reuters. "We see that Bashir is a war criminal and has direct responsibility for genocide and bombing with military aircrafts or helping militias on the ground.

"Bashir has not given the Sudanese judiciary the opportunity to hold him accountable for war crimes," he added.

The Arab League is urging Sudan to renew national trials for those suspected of crimes in Darfur as part of a plan to resolve the crisis, Arab diplomats say.

Sudan had formed special courts following the 2005 U.N. Security Council resolution referring Darfur to the ICC but those trials fizzled out.

Mutrif Siddig, who represented Sudan at Monday's AU meeting, said the AU would table a resolution at the U.N. Security Council to request a deferral.

South Africa, Burkina Faso and Libya are currently members of the Security Council. The resolution would need nine votes and to avoid a veto from any of the five permanent members.