200807231929 | Bashir orders release of combatant kids

Bashir orders release of combatant kids

Nyala - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday ordered the release of 89 youths arrested by his government after an attack by Darfur rebels on Khartoum two months ago.

"I order the authorities to release those children and take care of them and take care of their education," Bashir told a crowd of thousands in Nyala, southern Darfur, on the second leg of a visit to the war-torn region.

His visit comes a week after ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir of instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.

His regime is trying to persuade the UN Security Council to freeze possible legal proceedings should ICC judges actually issue an arrest warrant, on the grounds that it could jeopardise peace prospects.

Two weeks ago, the special UN envoy on human rights in Sudan, Sima Samar, urged the government not to prosecute the 89 "child rebels", recommending that they be treated as victims of war, not as combatants.

UN agencies and journalists have visited the 89 juveniles at a detention facility outside Khartoum, where they appear to be in good health.

Sudan says the children aged from 11 to 17 were press-ganged into a Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement that attacked Khartoum.

Sudan earlier pledged to accord the children all rights, including special courts should they face legal proceedings.