Sudan brushes aside Egyptian proposal for international conference

March 13, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The embattled Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir today received Egypt’s foreign minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and intelligence Chief Omer Suleiman who delivered a verbal message from president Hosni Mubarak.

This is the second visit by the pair to Sudan this year following a previous one in February where they also met with Bashir.

Observers say the presence of the Egyptian spy chief indicates the importance Cairo attaches to the issue of defusing tension following the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Bashir last week.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon phoned Mubarak on Thursday in which he expressed hope that the visit of Aboul-Gheit and Suleiman is successful.

Ban has likely requested that the Egyptian delegation press Bashir on reversing a decision taken last week to expel more than a dozen of foreign aid groups from Darfur.

The UN chief has revealed in his monthly press conference that he has been making extensive contacts with world countries, notably China, to convince Sudan to revoke the expulsion order.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) quoted Bashir as telling the Egyptian delegation that his government “is capable of closing any gaps in providing aid and securing the humanitarian situation in Darfur that resulted from expelling some foreign organizations”.

But Ban Ki-Moon has said this week that he does not believe that neither the UN nor Khartoum can fill this gap.

Sudan has accused the ejected aid groups of passing information to the ICC and said it welcomes any foreign groups “that respect Sudanese laws”.

The Egyptian delegation also received a negative response from Sudan on their proposal for an international conference on Darfur.

Sudan’s state minister for foreign affairs Ali Karti said that the Arab League agreed on designating Qatar as the venue for any talks on Darfur with regional and international participation “under control”.

Last month Khartoum and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) signed a declaration of goodwill in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar paving the way for full blown negotiations.

Karti said that invitation to specific countries such as US, Britain, France may mean that they “decide on issues not accepted by the Sudanese government”.

“What took place in Doha was sponsored by six countries including Egypt, Libya Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, with the participation of the African Union and the joint mediator” he said.

“Any other talk about specific countries we have made our views clear on this” Karti added.

Last week Egypt revealed that it has proposed an international conference that brings key world and regional players to agree on a common vision to tackle issues facing Sudan particularly the Darfur crisis “in its security, political and humanitarian” aspects.

But Sudanese official rejected the conference saying it will “internationalize” the Darfur crisis.

“If there are certain parties that want to internationalize this issue Sudan will not accept it” Ali Karti told the Qatar based Al-Jazeera television last week.

But the Egyptian foreign minister told reporters in Khartoum at the onset of his visit that an international conference had been first proposed by the Arab League in July 2008, underscoring the need to find solutions to “all the crises” in Sudan, including the Darfur conflict and the ICC arrest warrant for Bashir.

He also said that he delivered a message from Mubarak voicing support to “Sudan government and its people”.

This week the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat quoted unidentified Egyptian officials as saying that Sudan risks “Arab isolation” over refusing to take part in the proposed international conference.

This month the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber I issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture but turned down the genocide charges.

But the ICC prosecutor requested this week an appeal to the judges’ decision against the counts of genocide.

Arab and African countries criticized the warrant saying it will blow hopes for peace in the war ravaged region of Darfur. They also requested that the UN Security Council (UNSC) to defer the indictment under Article 16 of the Rome Statute which empowers the council to do so for a period of 12 months that can be renewed indefinitely.

(ST)