Sudan’s Bashir not welcome in France: Elysee

March 22, 2010 (PARIS) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir has been asked to dispatch an envoy to attend the France-Africa summit that is scheduled for next May at the Riviera city of Nice but has not been personally invited, officials at president Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said today.

On Sunday, Sudan’s official news agency (SUNA) said that Bashir received a written message from Sarkozy dealing with bilateral relations between the two countries and included within it the invitation. Sarkozy also reiterated his gratitude to efforts exerted by Bashir to secure the release of French aid workers.

The Sudanese president on his end promised that his government would fulfill the invitation without saying if he would personally participate.

However, today the Elysee made a clarification on the reports carried by Sudan state media stressing that Bashir would not be welcome on French territory.

“The president has indeed sent a letter to Omar Hassan al-Bashir to ask him to nominate the person who will represent Sudan at the Franco-African summit,” said an unidentified French official to Reuters, making clear that the Sudanese leader himself could not come.

Last December, the Egyptian government canceled its hosting of the same summit after failing to settle the dispute with Paris over the attendance of Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur.

Cairo and Paris agreed to move the summit venue to France which would effectively mean that Bashir will stay away for fear of being arrested on the territory of an ICC state party.

The participation of the Sudanese president in the summit has been subject of intense diplomatic wrangling between Cairo and Paris last year.

French newspapers quoting officials at the Elysee palace at the time said that Sarkozy is adamant about not inviting Bashir to the conference.

The French government had initially sought 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, something which Egypt rejected.

The list of events Bashir has skipped since the ICC warrant keeps growing. He has turned down several invitations in the last few months to attend events in Uganda, Nigeria, Venezuela, Denmark, Turkey, South Africa, Kenya and US for fear of arrest.

This month, Bashir addressed supporters in the Sudanese capital saying that he will continue to travel worldwide despite the warrant accusing world powers of standing behind his indictment.

(ST)