Sudan’s Bashir receives Qatar invitation to Arab Summit; confirms attendance
March 14, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir today received a formal invitation to the Arab summit to be held later this month in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar.
Sudan official news agency (SUNA) said that the Qatari state minister Hamad bin Nasser Al-Thani submitted the invitation to the Arab League annual summit and the Latin American summit during his meeting with Bashir.
The Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs Ali Karti told reporters afterwards that “it is well known that Bashir will take part in these two summits”. He said that Bashir lauded the Qatari role in support of Sudan.
The Qatari official said he handed the invitation from Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani for the summit and “wishing Sudan all the best”, according to SUNA.
If Bashir travels to Qatar it will be his first foreign trip since the ICC issued an arrest warrant for him on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture.
This week the Sudanese leader skipped on a scheduled trip to Addis Ababa for the annual supreme joint committee meeting that was to be co-chaired by Ethiopian Prime minister Meles Zenawi.
Sudanese media made no mention of the cancellation or provide reasons behind it but reported that the committee will convene on April 11th.
An unidentified foreign ministry official told the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat this week that Bashir will continue to make foreign trips before adding that his travel will be “subject to a selectivity process”.
Furthermore the official said that Bashir’s travel plans “will be surrounded by as much secrecy as possible”.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said last week that Bashir risks apprehension once he leaves Sudanese airspace.
Qatar is not a member of the ICC’s Rome Statute and is therefore under no legal obligation to arrest Bashir.
However court officials said they could transmit a request to Qatar for executing the arrest warrant in light of UN Security Council (UNSC) 1593 under chapter VII in March 2005 referring the situation in Darfur to the ICC.
The ICC spokeswoman Laurence Blairon in an interview with Agence France Presse (AFP) today, urged Qatar to cooperate with the court in apprehending Bashir.
“The court counts on the cooperation of states and therefore of Qatar, but it does not have its own police force,” she said.
“Qatar is not a state member of the Rome Statute, the founding text of the ICC, but it is a member of the United Nations,” Blairon said.
“The (UN) Security Council resolution that requires all states to cooperate with the court therefore applies to Qatar,” she added.
This week the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jasim Al-Thani told reporters that Bashir “is welcomed in Qatar”.
“The summit is an Arab meeting, it is not for Qatar or Sudan….Sudan will be invited, and it’s up to the Sudanese government weather to attend or not” he said.
The Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim announced that it would reconsider its position toward a peace process hosted by Qatar if the latter invites Al-Bashir.
Last month Khartoum and JEM signed a declaration of goodwill in Doha paving the way for full blown negotiations.
(ST)