AU moves summit to Ethiopia after Malawi snubs Bashir
Tue Jun 12, 2012 7:06am GMT
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, June 12 (Reuters) - The African Union has moved its July summit
to the Ethiopian capital after Malawi blocked the attendance of Sudan's
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal
Court (ICC), the bloc said.
Malawi last month asked the African Union to prevent Bashir from taking part
in the event, saying his visit would have "implications" for its
aid-dependent economy.
"Following the withdrawal of ... Malawi to host the 19th AU summit meetings
... and after consultations among member states, it has been decided that
the 19th summit will be held at the African Union headquarters in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, on the same dates," the AU said in a statement late on
Monday.
As an ICC member state, Malawi would be obliged to arrest Bashir if he
enters its territory. Bashir is accused of masterminding genocide and other
atrocities in Darfur.
The ICC's chief prosecutor has called for aid cuts to countries that fail to
detain him.
Malawi angered international donors, who have provided about 40 percent of
its budget funding, when it hosted Bashir last year while Bingu we Mutharika
ruled the country. Mutharika died in April.
African heads of state voted in 2009 not to cooperate with the ICC
indictments, saying they would hamper efforts to end Sudan's multiple
conflicts, and criticised the court for unfairly targeting African
countries.
Bashir has since visited Kenya and Chad, both ICC members, as well as
Ethiopia, Eritrea and other countries - an embarrassment for the global
court.
The agenda for the July summit includes relations with South Sudan, which
seceded last year under a 2005 peace deal, Sudan's Foreign Ministry has
said. The two countries are at odds over issues including the position of
the border, oil payments, debt and the status of citizens in one another's
territory. (Editing by George Obulutsa and Janet Lawrence)
