ABUJA, Nigeria - African leaders on Thursday adopted proposals on how to resolve a six-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, which include the creation of a hybrid court to try perpetrators of atrocities in the province.
Heads of states who sit on the African Union Peace and Security Council "endorsed" the recommendations drawn up by a seven-member high-level AU panel of the "wise" led by South Africa's former president Thabo Mbeki.
The team, which was asked critically to examine the situation in Darfur, has recommended the creation of a hybrid court comprising Sudanese and foreign judges to try those suspected of committing crimes against humanity.
Mbeki said Sudan "accepted" but would need further discussions with the AU especially where it concerned the hybrid court.
"They will look at what the Sudanese constitution allows with regards to that because this will be a precedence that has not been tried on the African continent before," Mbeki told reporters.
Sudan's Second Vice-President Ali Osman Taha told the African leaders that his country would consider the proposals with an open mind.
The panel also suggests that a truth and reconciliation commission be established and consider reparation for losses incurred during the ongoing conflict.
Sudanese leader Omar al-Beshir, who faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from atrocities committed in Darfur, skipped the Abuja summit.
Critics say the ICC warrant singles out weak states like Sudan, while taking a hypocritical stance towards countries like the US and Israel by ignoring worse atrocities committed by them, and by not charging American and Israeli officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The summit set up another team of experts -- inclduding Mbeki, former leader of Burundi Pierre Nkuruziza and ex-leader of Nigeria Abdulsalami Abubakar -- to help in the implementation of the recommendations.
The team would also help Sudanese players with the implementation of already existing peace agreements.
Although the team was given a one year mandate, no timeline was set for the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the 125 page report.
Sudan is due to hold elections in April 2010, and Mbeki had earlier stressed on the need to conclude the Darfur peace negotiations before the elections to ensure full participation by all including Darfurians.
"It is necessary to act urgently. There is recognition of the need to act, bearing in mind that there are deadlines of that kind like 2010," Mbeki told reporters
In an address to the leaders Mbeki said, "We believe the time to act is now."
"Exceptional measures must be put in place to assure the people of Darfur that justice will be done, taking into account the objective reality that a number of them have little confidence in the independence and impartiality of their national criminal justice system," he added.
Taha told African leaders of the "availability of the Sudanese government to work positively with the AU and the panel of the wise."
AU Commission president Jean Ping admitted that implementing the recommendations of the report would be "by far the hardest" part of the exercise since "Darfur is riven by mistrusts".
Alain Le Roy, the UN under secretary general for peacekeeping operations, said the proposals would help push forward efforts to end the crisis.
"We are confident the proposals made in this report will give a boost to the peace effort in the Darfur," he said.
Diplomats from Britain and the US gave welcomed the report, calling it "bold, serious, candid" and "comprehensive."
The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum and its allies.
Over the last six years, the rebels have fractured into multiple movements, fraying rebel groups, banditry, flip-flopping militias and the war has widened into overlapping tribal conflicts.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.7 million fled their homes.
Many of the rebels enjoy direct and indirect foreign support that helped fuel the conflict, with some critics pointing the finger at France, which has a military presence in neighbouring Chad – also accused of arming the Sudanese rebels. France had been accused of involvement in the genocide in Rwanda, but Paris denied responsibility, conceding only that ‘political’ errors were made.