US regrets restriction of Sudan’s Bashir movement in Washington
Sept 27, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs received on Wednesday an explanatory memo from the US Administration, in which it regretted the restriction of the movement of the Sudanese delegation headed by president al-Bashir during his recent visit to the US.
The official Sudanese News Agency reported on Wednesday that the U.S. administration denied in the memorandum that the restriction on Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir was intentional one and expressed its “regrets over this mistake”.
In the memo, the US explained that procedure adopted with Sudan delegation in Havana was regrettable and not intended.
It seems that the US consular office in Cuba delivered the visa in accordance with decision taken by Clinton Administration in 1997 to restrict the Sudanese diplomats’ movement in Washington. Prsident Bush removed this decision since September 2005.
President al-Bashir, declared in a press conference on Sunday 24 September a decision restricting the movement of the Americans, including the American diplomats in Sudan, to a geographical limit of 25 kilometres as from the Republican Palace, as equal treatment.
President al-Bashir visited the United States last week for the UN General Assembly and a summit meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.
After returning to his country, the Sudanese president ordered to restrict the movement of the U.S. nationals in Sudan at a geographical limit of 25 km as from the Presidential Palace in Khartoum.
He said that this measure would not be removed unless the relations between Sudan and the United States are improved.
(ST)