Sudan denies any link between Bashir’s return home from ACP summit and ICC
October 4, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government strongly denied that president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir cut short his visit to the Ghanaian capital, Accra, where a two-day summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group) was in progress.
Al-Bashir’s press secretary Mahjoub Fadl Badri said that the Sudanese head of state “delivered the country’s address and handed over the chairmanship to the Ghanaian president”.
“Participation in the summit was not a visit like some imagine” he added.
Badri also said any talk about why Al-Bashir did not stay for the closing of the summit aims at distracting from ACP’s stance on ICC stance which was supportive of Sudan.
But the ACP earlier draft resolution calling for “the withdrawal of the ICC demarche to allow for political diplomatic efforts” was replaced with the word “suspension” instead of withdrawal.
Al-Bashir’s visit to Accra came amidst a pending arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In mid-July the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant for Sudanese top official.
The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. It was only last week that judges have started reviewing the case in a process that could possibly drag on to next year.
Sudan state media had announced that Al-Bashir will be attending the summit for which he held its chairmanship. There was no mention of a condensed itinerary. The Sudanese head of state was the ACP bloc president since December 2006 when Sudan hosted the fifth summit of the 79 member body.
Pan African News Agency (PANA) said that Al-Bashir “took many by surprise with his unceremonious departure, since he had scheduled a news conference for Friday”. Sources told the news agency said he was taking precaution since the ICC’s warrant was hanging on his neck.
Ghana as a member of the ICC has an obligation to apprehend Al-Bashir if an arrest warrant is issued while on its territories. However Ghanaian officials made it clear that they have no plans to carry out an arrest.
Some observers have said that Al-Bashir travel to Accra was confirmed only after receiving assurances from Ghanaian officials that he would not be arrested.
Khartoum announced that Al-Bashir would make the trip a few days after the ICC Judges scheduled the October 1st meeting with the prosecutor to discuss the case.
Al-Bashir in his address to ACP summit described the war crimes and genocide charges as “a politically motivated action in a legal and humanitarian cloak”.
(ST)