Darfur Rebels Reject Arab League Peace Plan

Two key Darfur rebel groups have spurned an imitative by the Arab League to broker peace between them and President Omar al-Bashir’s government. The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) dismissed the initiative, saying it preferred to see Arab countries condemning Khartoum's "atrocities" in Darfur. Another prominent rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), claimed the initiative was a ploy to help shield Bashir from his genocide indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC). On Monday, Arab League foreign ministers decided to form a committee to help resolve the five-year conflict by mediating between Bashir’s government and the rebels.[PE]