Darfur rebels release group kidnapped a month ago

GENEVA, Sept 22, 2004 (AP) — Rebels in Sudan ‘s troubled Darfur region have released eight people kidnapped a month ago, the International Red Cross said Wednesday.

The eight, including Sudanese journalists and employees of the country’s Humanitarian Aid Commission, were released Saturday, a month after their capture by the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

“After discussions with both the Sudanese authorities and the SLA, the ICRC agreed to act as a neutral intermediary for the release,” the agency said in a statement.

“With the agreement of all concerned the group was handed over to the ICRC by the SLA and brought to the HAC office in Nyala,” in southern Darfur.

The Sudanese government last month identified four television journalists and two aid workers it said had been kidnapped.

The journalists, who worked for the official Darfur television network, were on their way from Nyala to film a documentary about refugees, according to the government-run Sudan Media Center.

In June, Sudanese rebels stopped and held 16 international aid workers for about three days. The Sudanese government accused the Sudan Liberation Army of kidnapping the aid workers. U.N. officials stopped short of that, but Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland warned then that the detention and delayed release of the aid workers was “totally unacceptable.”

Pro-government Arab militias have been accused of waging a campaign of murder, rape and arson on African villagers in the Darfur region of western Sudan . According to U.N. estimates, more than 1.2 million people have fled their homes to escape the violence and more than 50,000 have died.