Darfur rebels bolster China's case

China has always claimed that an ICC arrest warrant for Sudan's President Bashir will increase violence in Sudan. Now, it looks like the main rebel group agrees.

“When this warrant comes it is, for us, the end of Bashir's legitimacy to be President of Sudan,” Khalil Ibrahim, chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), told The Times. “We will work hard to bring him down ... If he doesn't co-operate with the ICC [International Criminal Court] the war will intensify.”

Of course, the JEM isn't the only rebel force on the battlefield. There's also the Sudanese Liberation Army... except that according to the article, the SLA has now splintered into 27 different groups.

The article goes on to say that the JEM's goals include "control of Khartoum and the transformation of Sudan into a federation of autonomous regions." The government in Khartoum will obviously never stand for that, so, like I always say, this war will end when someone wins or when both sides realize they can't. That obviously hasn't happened yet. I doubt the ICC warrant, however justified, will do much to shift that balance.