Sudan’s Bashir unlikely to attend AU summit in Uganda, says Malwal

June 8, 2010 (TURALEI) — A former adviser to Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir said the latter will most likely skip the African Union (AU) summit to be held in Uganda next month amid controversy on the issue of invitation extended to him.

Over the weekend a statement from the office of Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni, said that Bashir was not invited to the meeting and that Sudan was advised to dispatch other officials instead.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of ordering mass murder, rape and torture in Sudan’s western region of Darfur. He denies the charges but has seen his travel restricted since the arrest warrant was issued for him last year.

Uganda is a signatory to the ICC treaty making it legally obligated to apprehend him should he set foot in the country. Today the Ugandan government backtracked on its earlier statement revealing that an invitation was already sent to the Bashir through the Sudanese embassy in Kampala on April 6.

“We are under obligation to invite every head of state of the AU,” the Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary James Mugume told Kampala based Daily Monitor newspaper. “In fact President Museveni signed invitations to all heads of government, including Sudan on March 17, 2010 and Khartoum received their invitation on April 6”.

Mugume said that a press aide at the Ugandan presidency misconstrued the Museveni’s comments at the meeting with ICC president San Hyun Song, when he reportedly said that he doubted whether President Bashir would attend the Summit to mean that Uganda had not invited Sudan.

Bona Malwal, a former adviser to Bashir, in a statement obtained by Sudan Tribune, lauded the invitation extended to Bashir by Kampala.

Sudan has reacted angrily to the announcement by Uganda that Bashir was not invited to the meeting and demanded an apology and threatened to press the AU to switch the summit to another venue. The Sudanese ambassador to the AU was quoted by PANA as saying his government will submit a relocation request shortly even though African diplomats said it is too late to change venues.

“Although the statement was attributed to have originated from the office of president of Uganda, I did not believe it was released with knowledge of President Museveni and ministry of foreign affairs. This was why I had to contact Sudanese embassy in Uganda and foreign ministry in Khartoum,” Malwal said.

“My contacts with these institutions and officials established that President Bashir has been invited to attend the upcoming summit,” he said but disclosed that post-elections engagements may mean that the Sudanese head of state will send another official to represent him.

“I think President Bashir may not attend because of presidential commitments in forming a government in the coming days and other pressing national matters. He may delegate someone to attend on his behalf,” Malwal said.

Bashir, the only sitting head of state wanted by the ICC, has had to choose his trips carefully but he has made a point of traveling to friendly nations in the Middle East and Africa, including Saudi Arabia, Libya and Eritrea and others that are not members of the court.

South Africa said last month that Bashir had been invited to the continent’s first World Cup along with the rest of Africa’s leadership, but the president said his country would be obliged to arrest him if he took up the invitation.

Last year as similar situation occurred to Bashir prior to the Smart Partnership conference summit held in Kampala.

At the time the Ugandan State Minister for International Affairs Henry Oryem Okello said that the arrest warrant could be executed if Bashir visits.

Musevini reportedly apologized to Bashir over remarks made by his cabinet minister saying it does not represent his government’s position. Following the phone call Uganda announced that Bashir would delegate another official to attend.

Khartoum remained unconvinced by Kampala’s stance and demanded the removal of Okello.

Today the President of the Assembly of State Parties to the ICC Christian Wenaweser has insisted that Uganda must honor its obligations.

“I’m looking forward to seeing a statement from the Ugandan government that is no less equivocal than what we have seen over the past few days. What’s important from our perspective is Uganda is a state party to the Rome Statute so it has an obligation to fully cooperate with the provisions of that statute and we would like to see a statement to that affect,” Wenaweser said in a statement.

“Certainly confusion has been created, I have been in contact with senior Ugandan officials and told them it was in their interest and the interest of this conference that they would make a statement that is clearer than what they have done so far, and in particular make reference to the fact that they are a state party to the ICC”.

On Monday the Ugandan Ambassador to the AU, Mull Sebujja Katende, said the threat of action by the Sudanese officials would not affect the preparations for the Kampala Summit.

”They are blowing it out of proportion. The issue is not Uganda. The issue is Sudan’s problem with the International Criminal Court. We have commitments under the ICC,” the Ugandan envoy told PANA.

Ambassador Katende said Uganda’s official warning to the Sudanese leader was meant to avoid a diplomatic embarrassment during the July Summit.

”We have a similar case with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) when we were negotiating with them. We had to make it clear that we have obligations under the ICC,’ said Ambassador Katende. ”We are acting to avoid a diplomatic embarrassment, the issue is not political.”.

A spokesperson for the office of the ICC prosecutor told Reuters that Bashir was becoming increasingly isolated and could not travel to the AU summit despite the invitation because Museveni had confirmed he would be arrested.

“The consistent position of all States Parties to the ICC has been to hand invitations to president Bashir and warn him at the same time that should he travel to their territory, they would abide by their ICC obligations,” the spokesperson said.

(ST)