Amid the global coverage and loud debate over the ICC ruling, one voice has been notably absent: those in Darfur itself. Cut off from the media and lacking the tools to make their voices heard, it is hard to know what those whose suffering is at the core of the debate actually think. One telling glimpse, however, comes from UK reporter Rob Crilly.

In Zam Zam camp in North Darfur at least, he reports, the view of victims of the devastating conflict is indifference inspired by ignorance rather than outrage.

In Zam Zam he met Mariam Ahmed Abu whose daughter had been shot by her side during the fighting for Muhajiriya. When Crilly asked her about her feelings on the ICC's attempts to seek justice for the misery inflicted on her she told Crilly:

"This is what happened and now we have to live and to forget it".

"She hadn't heard of the ICC until I asked her about it and I'm starting to think that taking Bashir to the Hague will be more of a victory for activists far away from Sudan than for the people stuck in this miserable war," Crilly writes.

Those Sudanese citizens who can speak, though, are out in force in the blogosphere where many are furious about the ICC warrant and predict dire political consequences within Sudan.

"I ask: what about me Luis Ocampo? What about the millions of Sudanese citizens that have clearly demonstrated their opposition to your request to arrest our president?," says blogger Sudanese Optimist.

"Most of all, I regret that the ICC has deprived Sudanese citizens of the chance to determine the fate of their own country's president through democratic means," the Optimist writes.

Elsewhere in the "Sudanosphere," blogger Mimz argues that the decision will lead to the overthrow of Bashir

"We must all thank the ICC for the coup that is going to take place once again and cause the country to witness more turbulence. We must all also kiss the presidential elections goodbye if this coup ensues and kiss with it all our hopes and dreams of a better president and a better, more stable and more peaceful Sudan," Mimz says.

Those even more cynical think the pro-decision lobby groups are cashing in:

"The 'Save Darfur' crowd in the United States cannot be happier. In fact, they are using this opportunity to raise funds, as if this arrest warrant is all due to their so-called "advocacy," says For Sudan.

Others also argue the decision may also - with a terrible irony - cause more suffering in Darfur.

"The very lives of Darfur's innocent women and children could face increasing danger as a result of this warrant. Khartoum will very likely react aggressively, by stubbornly stirring up more trouble than already exists," says Sudanese Thinker.

There is also furious public debate across the continent. In the New York Times less an authority than Desmond Tutu challenged his fellow Africans with a simple question: "are they on the side of justice or on the side of injustice?"

"Justice is in the interest of victims, and the victims of these crimes are African. To imply that the prosecution is a plot by the West is demeaning to Africans and understates the commitment to justice we have seen across the continent."

Those who argue back are equally passionate. "Do whites ever commit war crimes?" a comment on All Africa asks. "Why can't the ICC issue warrants for Blair? Bush? Rumsfeld? Wolfowitz?"

Elsewhere though the African media appears unexpectedly silent on the issue of the ICC warrant.

And Nobel Peace Laureate Tutu's view of how peace can be achieved in Sudan is strongly contested by Sudan expert Alex de Waal.

"The ICC arrest warrant is a real decision with real consequences in terms of lives saved and lost," de Waal writes.

"The international community is playing its second highest card by demanding an arrest warrant (the highest card would be invading the country). That card is a dud."

In fact, he argues, however bad the position of aid agencies looks now, the worst may yet be to come.

"The Sudan Government will ignore it and the leverage that the internationals possessed is shrinking fast. I suspect that we will look back on the last few years as a time when things worked as well as they ever did in contemporary Sudan - when the CPA was implemented as well as could be expected, when there were numerous opportunities for international engagement in moving things forward, slowly and imperfectly, but none the less forward".

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