Sudan’s Bashir not attending Uganda summit
October 18 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government is dispatching two junior ministers to Uganda to attend the Special Summit of Heads of State and Government on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, state media reported.
A new controversy has erupted this week after Ugandan president Yoweri Musievini said he invited Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to attend the summit saying this was done in his capacity as an African head of state.
Bashir faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged role in Darfur crimes committed since 2003 which means that Uganda as a state party has an obligation to apprehend him.
However, Musievini said that Bashir will be safe from arrest if he visits.
In response Amnesty International criticized Musievini’s remarks and called on Uganda to respect its international obligations under the Rome Statute.
Ugandan and Sudanese officials in Kampala have been unable to confirm if Bashir plans on attending the summit.
“I don’t have any concrete information,” Sudan’s Deputy Head of Mission to Uganda Rahim Abdel-Rahim told Daily Monitor.
“Yes, there will be a delegation from Sudan but I have not received information [on Bashir’s visit] from Khartoum” he added.
Ambassador James Mugume, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday Uganda was yet to receive word from Khartoum on whether President Bashir would attend the conference.
This is the second time Uganda extends an invitation to the Sudanese president to take a part in a conference held on its territory.
Last July, Uganda backtracked on an invitation it sent to Bashir for the Global 2009 Smart Partnership Dialogue conference and asked Sudan to send another official instead to avoid a “diplomatic incident”.
Despite a phone call from Musievini to Bashir apologizing for one of his cabinet ministers saying that the latter would be arrested, Khartoum expressed fury at Kampala for making the suggestion that its president could be arrested.
Sudan even demanded that the Ugandan official who blew the first whistle on arresting Bashir be sacked and accused its Southern neighbor of breaching the African Union (AU) resolution made last July that no country in the continent will be cooperate with the ICC in executing the arrest warrant.
(ST)