Darfur rebels welcome any ICC warrant for Bashir

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur's main rebel groups said on Saturday any arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir would be a triumph for justice.

A senior European envoy told Reuters on Friday that Bashir was likely to be among those named by ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday as he seeks arrest warrants for suspected war criminals in Darfur.

Sudan says any such move would threaten the peace process in the country. The United Nations, diplomatic missions and aid groups in Sudan have raised security fearing a violent backlash.

"This is a new world age -- it will send a message that anyone who commits crimes and genocide will be judged," Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, founder of the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), said by telephone from the United States, where he has lived for several years.

Washington accuses the Khartoum government of genocide in Darfur. The rebels have also been accused of rights abuses and blamed for the deaths of several peacekeepers in Darfur.

Nur and two other rebel leaders told Reuters that if Moreno-Ocampo indicted any of their own commanders, they would comply and send them to the ICC in The Hague for trial.

The Darfur conflict, which flared up after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives and has driven 2.5 million from their homes, sparking the world's largest humanitarian operation.

"HAPPY DAY"

Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the most militarily powerful rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said it was suspending all military operations until the announcement expected on Monday, to show its support for the ICC.

JEM attacked Khartoum in May, the first time a rebel group brought one of Sudan's multiple civil wars to the capital. The clashes killed more than 200 and injured hundreds more.

"This is a happy day for humanity in the whole world, not only Darfur and Sudan," Ibrahim said by telephone from Darfur. "We are fully supporting the ICC if it happens that Bashir is at the top of their list," he added.

The large SLM Unity faction -- which is separate from the SLM -- also welcomed any ICC warrant for Bashir.

"This will show our mothers, sisters, brothers in the refugee camps that people care about them," said senior SLM Unity commander Sherif Harir. "Bashir has been killing us for so long. What more can he do? We are not afraid of any backlash."

The ICC indicted a Sudanese minister and an allied militia leader for war crimes last year. But Sudan, which signed but did not ratify the treaty forming the ICC, refuses to hand them over.

JEM leader Ibrahim said Bashir should turn himself over to the ICC if it wants him to face trial.