International prosecution or political compromise:|which way for the African Union in the Darfur Crisis?

Sudan is one of Africa's most populous countries. Its predominant religion is Islam, while Christianity and animist traditional religions are more prevalent in the South where Darfur is situated. Darfur is Sudan's largest region, with an estimated population of approximately 6 million people, consisting of non-Arab African farmers? such as the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes (target groups).1 Before the outbreak of the conflict in 2002, tension had been building|in the region due to the alleged socio-economic and political marginalisation of the non-Arab African communities in Darfur by the predominantly Arab-based Government of Sudan (GoS). Low-intensity conflicts between the sedentary farmers of the African tribes and the landless nomadic Arab herdsmen over land and water use took a political turn when the GoS sought to subdue the rebellion that sprang up in the Darfur region in the late nineties.