Paris & Cairo deadlocked over Bashir’s presence in summit- Le Monde
December 10, 2009 (PARIS) – The French and Egyptian government have refused to back down from their respective positions on the presence of Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in the France-Africa summit scheduled for early next year in the Egyptian Red Sea coastal city of Sharm El-Sheik.
The status of Bashir as a figure indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged role in the Darfur war crimes is in the heart of the row as European Union (EU) rules prohibit its members from engaging into contacts with him.
Paris and Cairo have been engaged in intense diplomatic negotiations to resolve the dispute over whether Bashir should be invited to the summit as the Egyptians have insisted.
France’s Le Monde newspaper quoting officials at the Elysee palace said that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is to discuss the matter with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy during his visit to Pairs on Monday.
The presidential officials said that there is no chance that Sarkozy “would shake hands with a head of state sought by the ICC”.
The newspaper said that Paris proposed a compromise in which the summit would be split in two parts, first at the ministerial level, focused on discussing economic issues with the absence of French officials, followed by a meeting of heads of state to which the Sudanese president would not be invited.
However, it appears that the plan received a cool reception by the Egyptian government. The Le Monde said that the working lunch between Mubarak and Sarkozy next week could decide the fate of the summit with the particularly as it appears that the February 2010 date would not be met.
The officials said that if Egypt insists on inviting Bashir then France could be forced into a “fallback position” and request that the summit be held in another African country.
The report disclosed that a number of human right groups including Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) sent a letter to the Elysee asking the latter to “clearly” state that the participation of Al-Bashir is excluded “in any form whatsoever”.
“At a time when Bashir was increasingly marginalized on the international stage, France must strengthen the movement and not the reverse” said Jean-Marie Fardeau who is the Director of Human Rights Watch’s Paris office.
In the last few months, Bashir has turned down several invitations in the last few months to attend events in Uganda, Nigeria, Venezuela, Denmark, Turkey, South Africa and US for fear of arrest.
The officials speaking to the Le Monde said that “if Omar Al-Bashir is invited then Nicolas Sarkozy can not be present. Without his presence, there is no Africa-France summit”.
The newspaper pointed out to growing tensions between Cairo and Paris over the failure of the Egyptian bid to have its culture minister acquire the seat of the UNESCO chief and the “political paralysis” of the Union for the Mediterranean.
Furthermore, Egypt is unhappy over the support lent by France to the Qatari sponsorship of peace talks between Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government.
Egypt views Qatar as a country promoting and supporting militant groups including Hamas movement which controls the Gaza strip. Furthermore Cairo sees Qatar’s growing prominence as a challenge to its status as a regional power.
Sudanese officials have maintained silence over the row between Cairo and Paris over Bashir’s invitation. Last month the newspaper for the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) Al-Raed quoted “informed sources” as saying that Mubarak will sponsor a meeting between Bashir and Sarkozy on the sidelines of the France-Africa conference.
Paris has not been in Sudan’s good graces, analysts tell AFP, due to its support of the ICC warrant, its hosting of Darfur rebel chief Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur and its military presence in neighboring Chad.
(ST)