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Sudan 'protecting' fugitives

KHARTOUM - Sudan is protecting two men wanted for war crimes in Darfur and is "not serious" about pursuing members of allied militias wanted for committing atrocities, the country's state minister for justice said yesterday.

Minister Bol Lul Wang is a member of south Sudan's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement, former southern rebels who joined a coalition government with the north after a 2005 peace deal ended decades of civil war.

The statements from inside the coalition will test the already strained north-south relations as south Sudan prepares to secede, after the southerners overwhelmingly chose to declare independence in a referendum this month.

When asked whether Sudan was currently pursuing active cases against two men wanted for war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court (ICC) - militia leader Ali Kushayb and state governor Ahmed Haroun - Wang answered: "Not at all.

"The prosecutor may find some difficulties taking procedures against them because they are being protected by the government."

The ICC's prosecutor accused Haroun of recruiting and arming "Janjaweed" militias to crush the Darfur uprising, as part of Haroun's then job as minister of state for the interior.

Haroun, who denies the allegations, is currently the governor of the oil-producing region of SouthernKordofan.

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