Sudan Bashir, UN chief to discuss Darfur crisis
March 26, 2007 (RIYADH) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir is due to meet UN chief Ban Ki-moon in Riyadh on Tuesday to discuss the Darfur conflict, in the face of Khartoum’s continued defiance of international demands.
Beshir has consistently rejected UN plans to deploy a peacekeeping force in Darfur and refused to turn over war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.
An Arab League official said on Monday the Riyadh talks would also be attended by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, Arab League chief Amr Mussa and the head of the African Union’s executive arm, Alpha Oumar Konare.
According to the United Nations, at least 200,00O people have died and more than two million been displaced since the conflict between rebels and government forces erupted in Darfur in February 2003. Some sources say the death toll is much higher.
Tuesday’s talks come on the eve of the annual Arab summit in the Saudi capital which Ban is also due to attend.
On Monday Beshir again refused to have Ahmed Haroun, the current secretary of state for humanitarian affairs who is suspected by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Darfur war crimes, questioned or sacked.
Haroun “will not resign or be fired and will not be interrogated,” Beshir told the independent daily Al-Sudani in a new tirade against the tribunal.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol echoed Beshir’s comments in Riyadh on Monday, saying the ICC had “no right to put any Sudanese citizen on trial.”
Beshir’s remarks came after last week’s announcement by Sudan’s general prosecutor that Haroun would be questioned over crimes in the troubled western Sudanese region, despite having been earlier cleared of any wrongdoing by the country’s judiciary.
In February, ICC prosecutor Luis-Moreno Ocampo accused Haroun and a local militia leader of 51 crimes against humanity and war crimes — including murder, torture and mass rape.
(AFP)