From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Mar 25 2009 - 06:36:25 EST
Bashir in Egypt to meet with Mubarak
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Cairo Wednesday to meet with
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to discuss the March 4 ICC arrest warrant
issued on Bashir for war crimes
AFP - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir arrived in Egypt on Wednesday, an
airport official said, flaunting his freedom in defiance of an international
arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Beshir was to hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his second
visit abroad since March 4, when the International Criminal Court issued an
arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But there was little chance of Beshir being arrested in Sudan's northern
neighbour, with both Egypt and the Arab League rejecting the warrant and
saying it threatens peace talks in Sudan.
Egypt -- like all Arab states except for Jordan -- is not a party to the
Rome treaty that created the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes
tribunal.
The ICC does not have a police force and calls on signatory states to
implement warrants. However, all United Nations member states are urged to
cooperate with The Hague-based court.
Even the United States, where the previous administration described the
Darfur conflict as genocidal, said on Tuesday it was under "no legal
obligation" to arrest Beshir as it was not a signatory to the Rome statute.
Beshir's visit to key US ally Egypt comes just two days after he made a
short trip to diplomatically isolated Eritrea on Monday.
Speculation has also risen about whether Beshir will attend a March 29-30
Arab summit in Doha, with Sudan's highest religious authority, the Committee
of Muslim Scholars, issuing a fatwa, or edict, urging him not to go.
The Egypt visit comes amid a worsening humanitarian situation in Darfur
after Khartoum ordered the expulsion of 13 international aid agencies in the
wake of the arrest warrant.
The United Nations warned on Tuesday that it would appeal to international
donors for extra funds following the expulsion of 3,142 aid agency staff.
UN humanitarian affairs coordinator Ameerah Haq warned in Khartoum that the
situation in Darfur would deteriorate further over the next weeks.
"By the beginning of May, as the hunger gap approaches, and unless the World
Food Programme has found partners able to take on the mammoth distribution
task, these people will not receive their rations," she said.
"Up to 650,000 currently do not have access to full health care," she added.
Aid groups which remain are also increasingly concerned about security in
Darfur, with a Sudanese working for a Canadian group shot dead at his home
on Monday.
The United Nations says 300,000 people have died -- many from disease and
hunger -- and 2.7 million been made homeless by the Darfur conflict, which
erupted in February 2003.
Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
Beshir, the first sitting president to be issued with a warrant by the ICC,
faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes, accused
of orchestrating a campaign of murder, torture, rape and pillage in Darfur.
Many African and Arab states, along with key Khartoum ally China, have
condemned the ICC move and called for the warrant to be suspended.
The Arab League and African Union have vowed to lobby the UN Security
Council to suspend the court's proceedings.
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