[An Nahar] Two Darfur rebel leaders are to go on trial in May next year for the 2007 killings of 12 African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peacekeepers in the war-torn western region of Sudan, the  International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
said on Wednesday.
Abdallah Banda and Saleh Jerbo face three war crimes charges for leading an attack in northern Darfur in September 2007, when a force armed with rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns opened fire on the AU's military base at Haskanita.
"Today, the trial chamber set the date for the commencement of trial for May 5, 2014," the Hague-based ICC said in a statement, setting the stage for the first trial for crimes committed in the Darfur region.
About 1,000 assailants took part in the massive attack targeting peacekeepers from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), during which the base was also looted.
Banda, around 50, and Jerbo, around 39, who are not in jug, appeared voluntarily before the court in June 2010 and urged other war crimes suspects to surrender to justice.
The court's judges confirmed in March 2010 there was enough evidence to put them on trial for "violence to life, intentionally directing attacks against peacekeepers and pillaging," but did not set a trial date.
The judges "considered that the trial cannot start before necessary measures are put in place to ensure that... any risks of interruptions to the trial proceedings are minimized," the ICC said.
This included witness protection and training interpreters to speak Zaghawa in order to allow the suspects "to follow proceedings in a language they can understand."
The ICC declined to comment on the two suspects' current whereabouts.
Four others are wanted for war crimes in Darfur: Sudanese Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, former Sudanese government minister Ahmad Harun, pro-government Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb, and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
, whom prosecutors accuse of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Bashir continues to defy an ICC arrest warrant as he travels around the continent, including making a visit to Chad in February for a regional summit.
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