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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Nigeria has proposed setting up an African-run tribunal to prosecute human rights violators and war crimes suspects from Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region, a possible bid to break an impasse in the U.N. Security Council.
The Nigerian proposal, made on behalf of the African Union, which it currently heads, comes as the Security Council is wrestling over a new resolution for a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force to help monitor a peace agreement ending a 21-year civil war between the government and rebels in southern Sudan.
While the U.S.-sponsored resolution is meant to help Sudan recover from the civil war, it is also aimed at fostering peace in Darfur, where the United Nations now estimates that about 180,000 people have died from fighting, disease or malnutrition since October 2003. But a key sticking point has been how to bring war crimes suspects to justice.
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