Sudan to issue arrest warrants for Darfur rebels

Tuesday 11 September 2007.

September 10, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan is preparing arrest warrants for six Darfur rebel leaders, accusing them of masterminding a bloody attack on a government base, the Justice Ministry said on Monday.

Khartoum said 41 people were killed when the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) attacked a police base in the town of Wad Banda in Kordofan region, 200 km (125 miles) from the border with war-torn Darfur late last month.

The ministry said in a statement carried by state-run media the attack was "a criminal and terrorist act".

"Arrest warrants would be issued in cooperation with the Interpol against six leaders of the JEM responsible for the attack," the ministry said. It did not name suspects.

JEM claimed responsibility for the August 29 attack, but insisted it was on a military base, manned by 1,700 troops and used for launching government-backed raids against southern Darfur. The government denies the charges.

JEM commanders were not available for comment.

The announcement of the arrest warrants came seven weeks before the start of peace talks between Khartoum and rebel groups, expected to take place in Libya on October 27.

It also coincided with fresh reports of violence and lawlessness in war-torn Darfur.

The United Nations on Monday reported crowds of displaced Sudanese had killed four men who had tried to hijack a U.N. vehicle in south Darfur’s Kalma camp on Thursday. A day earlier, gunmen killed one resident of the nearby Bilal camp and kidnapped another.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in more than four years of conflict in Darfur and 2.5 million others have been driven from their homes by rape, looting and killing. Washington calls the violence genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use.

Khartoum says only 9,000 people have been killed, blaming Western media for exaggerating the conflict.

(Reuters)