Sudan rebels welcomes ICC Darfur war crimes probe

CAIRO, June 6 (AFP) — The main rebel group in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region hailed Monday the decision by the International Criminal Court to begin investigating alleged war crimes in the region.

An African Union (AU) peace keeper shows injuries on a former detainee, allegedly inflicted by Sudanese forces, after a prisoners release at a AU compound in el-Fasher in the Darfur region.(AFP) .

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) pledged full cooperation with The Hague-based court, saying it would hand over all evidence it had gathered regarding human rights abuses in Darfur.

“The movement affirms its support and unconditionally welcomes the bold step taken by the ICC to launch an inquiry into war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region,” an SLM statement said.

ICC prosecutor Moreno Ocampo’s office announced Monday that the court has opened an inquiry into war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur, wracked by more than two years of conflict.

A special UN inquiry has given the ICC the names of 51 potential suspects in war crimes and crimes against humanity, most of them on the side of the government and its Janjaweed militia allies.

The UN inquiry, carried out in January, established that crimes, including murder, torture, rape and plunder and stopping just short of genocide, had occurred in the suppression of an ethnically-based uprising in the province.

Between 180,000 and 300,000 people have been killed and 2.4 million made homeless in Darfur since the uprising in early 2003 prompted Khartoum to unleash militias in a scorched-earth campaign.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir said in April he would never hand over any Sudanese national to international jurisdiction.