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Sudan to release 24 Darfur detainees before talks
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — The Sudanese government will release 24 detainees involved in the Darfur conflict as a goodwill gesture before planned peace talks with rebels, the country's justice minister said Saturday.
To be re-arrested when the camera lights are off ...
Sudan and Darfur's strongest rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, agreed during talks last week to exchange prisoners as a goodwill gesture before more talks. JEM has said they released 21 government soldiers. A date on further talks has not been announced.

Last week was the first round of negotiations between the government and rebels since 2007. But only JEM took part, casting doubt over how far the talks can go in dealing with the conflict, which includes several rebel groups. Qatar has been mediating the new talks. Saturday's announcement comes after Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, met with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamid bin Khalifa Al Thani, in Khartoum.

Justice Minister Abdel-Basset Sabdarat said al-Bashir decided to pardon the 24 prisoners "in support of the Qatari initiative." He did not identify the prisoners. JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein said it was not yet clear if those to be released are even members of the rebel group.
So the gummint releases 24 low-lifes and we in the West are supposed to let Bashir walk away, is that it?
The group wants the release of its members detained after an attack it launched on the capital in May. Human rights groups said hundreds of Darfurians were detained after the attack. Some 50 JEM members, including senior commanders, were tried and sentenced to death in August in hastily convened trials. Their release would be a major concession and would require a presidential pardon.

Those absent from the talks in Qatar said they were designed to offer al-Bashir a way out of an expected arrest warrant by an international court for war crimes in Darfur. The Hague, Netherlands-based International Criminal Court is expected to make a decision within years days on whether to issue a warrant.

Sudan's powerful intelligence chief Salah Abdallah warned a warrant against al-Bashir may revert Sudan into a hard-line Islamic regime. "Our message to those who stand behind the ICC is that we were Islamic fundamentalists but have become moderate and civilized and this continues to be our conviction," Abdallah said in comments published in Saturday's newspapers. "If they press us to return to our past position, we will no doubt return. And if they want us to return into hard-liners anew ...we are capable of doing it."
So if you take a stand against them they'll become nastier and meaner, and if you don't, they'll be .. nasty and mean ...
In an apparent warning against anyone trying to help the ICC arrest al-Bashir if a warrant is issued, Abdallah said that whoever tries to implement the decision will have his hands, head and limbs "chopped," according to the Akhbar al-Youm newspaper.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-02-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=263151