Sudanese opposition parties from across the political spectrum pressed for Darfur war crimes suspects to stand trial abroad, backing the international community against the Khartoum regime. Groups ranging from the Communist Party to the Islamist Popular Congress told the independent daily Al-Ayam that the 51 suspects named by a UN commission of inquiry should be tried abroad as they included senior officials. They warned the government of the dire consequences of opposing a UN Security Council resolution ordering foreign trials. Ali Mahmoud Hassanain, deputy chairman of the Democratic Unionist Party, one of Sudan's oldest factions, said he could not conceive of the world body endorsing trials inside Sudan and urged the government to be realistic. The rival Umma Party of former Prime Minister Sadek al-Mahdi said it backed trials before the International Criminal Court in The Hague and urged Sudanese to welcome the idea. Farouk Kadudah of the Communist Party suggested the trials be held in the presence of Sudanese judges in Arusha, Tanzania, the town where the UN-backed tribunal for Rwanda sits. "This is a middle-of-the road solution," Kadudah told Al-Ayam. Popular Congress deputy secretary General Abdullah Hassan Ahmed backed the Arusha proposal, which is also supported by the United States. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan by contrast has called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to be given jurisdiction over the Darfur cases.