Sudan’s Bashir will not attend Arab summit in Qatar: report
March 22, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir will skip the annual Arab summit that is due to be held in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar later this month, a newspaper reported today.
According to the newspaper the committee was comprised of Bashir’s advisers and his aides in political affairs, security, military and foreign relations.
The Sudanese leader’s travel abroad has been subject to intense debate within the country over the last few weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him earlier this month in connection with war crimes committed in Darfur.
Khartoum is particularly concerned over the prospects of a mid-air interception by foreign fighters to Bashir’s plane forcing him to land in a state where he could be apprehended and sent to The Hague.
Yesterday Reuters reported that the ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo was in New York to urge countries to act on the ICC arrest warrant against Bashir.
“As soon as he travels through the international airspace he could be arrested. Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor show that the destiny of Mr. Bashir is to face justice” he said.
Sudanese political figures and newspaper columnists have appealed to Bashir to cancel his scheduled appearance in Doha.
Yesterday the highest Islamic authority in Sudan issued a non-binding fatwa [religious opinion] saying that Bashir should not fly to Doha in light of the current circumstances where enemies of Allah and the nation are surrounding him” the statement read.
“Fearing for the sake to prevent danger is following orders of god and the prophet and forfeiting chances of the enemies of Allah by staying inside Sudan with your people and angering the infidels”.
The Sudanese president said in an interview with Egypt’s independent Al-Isboa weekly published Saturday that he will fly to Doha to attend the Arab summit for which he received an official invitation a week ago.
But on Sunday the presidential press secretary Mahjoub Badri told the pro-government Al-Rayaam that no final decision has been made on Bashir’s trip.
Today the Sudanese state minister for culture, youth and sports Amin Hassan Omar made statements to Palestinian ‘Quds Press’ in which he emphasized that Bashir’s participation in Doha summit is final and will not be reversed.
The Al-Hayat newspaper however said that the committee said that their conclusion was reached “to avoid the possible risks that could face him [Bashir] which would drown Sudan into a crisis with unsafe consequences”.
Furthermore the committee made their decision after consulting with military and police leadership and Sudan Islamic scholars’ board.
A Sudanese commentator told Agence France Presse (AFP) that appeals for Bashir not to travel are offering the president a face-saving way out of the ICC bind.
Yesterday the daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper cited Sudanese sources as saying that some officials within the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) think the trip is necessary to prove that Bashir is not affected by the ICC ruling while others believe it is not worth the risk.
The controversy was not pacified by statements attributed to the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa in which he said that the Arab League and Qatar have both rejected a request from the ICC to execute the arrest warrant against Sudanese president.
(ST)