Sudan’s Bashir to make 2nd attempt at addressing UNGA

August 3, 2015 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir plans to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings this year in New York, a diplomat at the UN said today.

Sudan’s Deputy UN ambassador Hassan Hamid Hassan answered in the affirmative when asked if Bashir would attend a UN summit dedicated to sustainable development in late September.

According to Reuters, a provisional agenda for the UNGA meeting of world leaders only lists Sudan as being represented at ministerial level. Another one lists the Sudanese head of state as scheduled to speak on Sept. 26.

Neither the US State department nor the Sudanese foreign minister commented on Bashir’s planned appearance.

Bashir made a similar attempt to fly to New York in September 2013 but Washington dragged its feet on granting him visa without rejecting it outright.

The US at the time decried Bashir’s visa application. Under the UN headquarters agreement, the US is obligated to promptly issue visas for officials seeking to participate in UN events except under very limited circumstances related to national security.

“Those people [US government] we put them in a corner….We [can] go to the US and no one can do anything to us because there is no law in America that affords US authorities the right to take any action against me because it is not a member of the Rome Statute. “Attending the [UN] General Assembly [meeting] is our right” Bashir told reporters at the time.

Washington asserted that Bashir should not make such a trip because he is accused of war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Court (ICC) related to Darfur conflict.

The US is not an ICC member but in 2013 said the ICC arrest warrant will be a factor in deciding his visa request.

Last June, Bashir was forced to flee South Africa where he attended an African Union (AU) summit after a court ruled he should be banned from leaving pending the outcome of a hearing on his possible arrest.

The court eventually ordered taking him into custody pending his transfer to the ICC. South Africa, an ICC member, was accused of flouting its constitutional and international obligation by allowing him to leave.

(ST)