Sudan-Ethiopia high level meeting postponed indefinitely on schedule conflict

April 14, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Sudanese-Ethiopian supreme joint committee meeting that was supposed to take place last week was postponed due to schedule conflict, the Ethiopian premier said yesterday.

This is the second time the meeting was delayed with the first instance being last month after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

The committee is to be chaired by Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

At a press conference yesterday Zenawi said the meeting was not possible because both sides were tied up.

“We were planning to hold the joint Ethiopia-Sudan meting in parallel to the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) summit but a notice from the Sudanese Authorities came up which changed the plan” he said.

Zenawi said that Sudanese authorities informed them of “other urgent commitments to take care at home”.

However he said that he expects the meeting to be held soon but provided no specific date and gave no other details.

Early last week Special advisor to PM Meles Zenawi, Bereket Simon dismissed speculations that the postponement could be for security reasons in connection with ICC’s arrest warrant issued upon Sudanese president who was expected to attend the meeting leading his delegation.

(ST)