Taha leads Sudan’s delegation to France –Africa summit
May 28, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Khartoum announced today that Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha will lead the Sudanese delegation to attend France-Africa summit which will be held in southern France next week.
The Conference will take place in Nice on May 31 and June 1, 2010. The annual meeting had been initially scheduled for January in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
However the decision to change the venue to France and to push it for May had been taken after the insistence of the host country, Egypt, to invite the Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir who is indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
The Sudanese delegation includes Presidential advisor Ghazi Salah Eddin Attabani, who is also in charge of Darfur file, Mohamed Atta, head of intelligence and security services, Lual Deng state minister for finance and Mutrif Sidiq undersecretary at the foreign affairs ministry.
Held since 1975, only the former French colonies had been invited to the event to discuss political and economic ties. However Paris opened it gradually to the rest of Africa taking in consideration the need to strengthen economic ties with other African countries but also because it has less political influence on its former colonies.
Nice summit is expected to discuss mainly the role of the private sector in Africa, African countries in international institutions, and France’s role in strengthening security in Africa.
Human Rights Watch today urged the heads of state participating in the France-Africa summit to make a strong commitment to provide justice for victims of human rights abuses and to bring perpetrators to account.
The rights watchdog said it would press for action “on specific cases where human rights abusers have escaped prosecution for heinous crimes” citing the Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir, former Chadian President Hissene Habré, Bosco Ntaganda, a former Congolese warlord wanted by the ICC, and Ethiopia’s military forces, who have been implicated in numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Somali and Gambella regions and also in neighboring Somalia, and some other cases.
(ST)