http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=277098&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
Rebel backs ICC despite loss of aid groups Publish Date: Friday,6 March, 2009, at 11:21 PM Doha Time The arrest warrant issued against the president of Sudan offers new hope to the people of Darfur because it will dissuade attacks, even though the immediate consequences are dire, a Darfur rebel leader said yesterday. Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur, founder of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said the departure of the aid workers was a disaster for the people of Darfur. But if there had been no warrant, attacks by government troops and proxy militias would be an even graver danger."Darfur is in a Catch 22 situation," said the Paris-based rebel leader, who says fighters loyal to him control parts of Darfur."Either you let Bashir go so he can kill even more people with his Janjaweed militias and the aid workers will bring relief to people who are dead ... or you indict him," Nur said. He argued that the warrant would send a signal to army commanders and fighters from the Janjaweed, government-backed militias behind some of the worst atrocities in Darfur. Nur's SLA and another rebel group took up arms in 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the development of Darfur. Nur, who enjoys widespread support among residents of some of Darfur's largest refugee camps, called on the international community to replace ineffective peacekeepers with a stronger force and give them a powerful mandate. "In Darfur there is no peace to be kept. My appeal is that we don't need peacekeepers, we need peacemakers. We need an international force to stop the genocide now," he said. The UNAMID peacekeeping force, an operation run jointly by the African Union and the UN, has 11,000 men in Darfur, a region the size of France. It is well short of its promised 26,000 personnel and has been unable to secure Darfur. Nur reiterated his position that he would not take part in any peace talks until there was security in Darfur. Nur took part in lengthy talks with two other rebel factions and with the Sudanese government in Nigeria in 2005-06. One of the other rebel groups signed an accord with Khartoum, but he refused to sign. The accord turned out to be a complete failure. Now, he said, Nur wanted total "conflict suspension" before he would return to the table. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
