A Sudanese court on Sunday sentenced to death 11 rebels from the volatile western Darfur region, according to dpa. Britain's BBC reported that the accused were members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who had been found guilty of involvement in attacks near the capital Khartoum last year. JEM is the most active rebel movement in the conflict with government troops and their Arab-speaking militias. The attacks, the first carried out in the vicinity of Khartoum, were followed by the arrest of hundreds of Darfuris in the capital and surrounding areas on suspicion of complicity. Human rights groups have criticized the arrests, saying they were carried out without warrants or allowing detainees access to legal representation. In recent weeks, at least 60 member of the JEM have been sentenced to death. The United Nations estimates that more than 300,000 people have died in Darfur, inhabited mostly by ethnic African tribes, since the conflict began six years ago. In early March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an international arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashar over his alleged part in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The Sudanese government subsequently expelled 13 international aid organizations, causing wide international outrage and concern for the plight of the more than 2,3 million displaced by the conflict.
