Wanted President Bashir now visits Egypt

CAIRO, Wednesday

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir arrived in Cairo today, defying an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

President Bashir, on his second trip abroad since the Hague-based court issued the warrant on March 4, is expected to discuss developments surrounding the ICC ruling with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

President Bashir is unlikely to face arrest in Egypt, which has close ties with its Sudanese neighbour and has called on the UN Security Council to suspend the ICC warrant.

President Mubarak met President Bashir at a Cairo airport before the two headed for consultations, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol at Sudan’s ministry of Foreign Affairs, said President Bashir wanted to show defiance of the ICC by visiting Egypt the same week as a trip to Eritrea.

“The president has said before that the arrest warrant is not worth the ink that it is written with -- and this is the message of this trip,” he said.

“The president will continue to travel to countries that are against the ICC -- and there are many of these countries, all the African, Arab and many Asian countries.”

US-ally Egypt fears instability to its south and any disruption to its share of the Nile River, which flows through Sudan.

Egypt wanted to signal that it would not follow Washington’s lead on Sudan, said Diaa Rashwan, political analyst at the Cairo-based Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

“In Egypt’s relationship with the United States, there’s always a margin to allow for Egypt’s interests,” he said. “This is an issue of Egyptian national security and we have our perspective that we won’t change, regardless of how Europe and the United States feel about it.”

International experts say at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.7 million driven from their homes in almost six years of ethnic and political fighting in Darfur in western Sudan. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.

The Darfur conflict flared when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government, demanding better representation and accusing it of neglecting the development of the region.

Ahmed Hussein Adam, spokesman for Darfur’s rebel Justice and Equality Movement, said Egypt’s hosting of President Bashir was “in violation of international law and (UN) Security Council resolutions.”

The Sudanese government said shortly after the ICC decision that President Bashir would defy the warrant by travelling to an Arab summit in Qatar next week, but Sudanese officials have released statements raising questions over the wisdom of the trip, prompting speculation Sudan may send another representative.

The Prime Minister of Qatar today said the Gulf state was coming under pressure not to receive President Bashir, though he did not identify from which source.

“There are pressures, but you know Qatar well,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, also Qatar’s Foreign minister, said in remarks broadcast by Qatar-based Al Jazeera television.

“We presented the invitation and I have come to present it again, as the Prime Minister and Foreign minister. We respect international law and we respect the presence of President Bashir in Qatar,” he said, addressing reporters in Khartoum.

Though close to Washington, Qatar has furthered its maverick image, maintaining close ties with Syria, Iran and Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah -- all at odds with Washington and its regional Arab allies.

Meanwhile, armed raiders set fire to a refugee camp in Darfur region, killing at least two people, peacekeepers said today.

The attack on Abu Zor camp, close to regional capital El Geneina, came at a time of heightened tension in Darfur, after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President.

Darfur’s joint UN/African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force said residents reported four armed men broke into the west Darfur camp just before midnight on Tuesday and started a fire.

“I am in the camp now. The fire went everywhere. It has affected a lot of people,” said UNAMID chief of staff Amgad Morsy, speaking to Reuters by satellite phone mid morning today.

Have since died

“Four people were injured and two have since died,” he said, adding the fire had destroyed about a quarter of the camp, home to about 6,000 people, mostly from the non-Arab Masalit ethnic group. The fire was now under control, he said.

The Masalit were among the ethnic groups that activists say were targeted in a bloody government-led counter-insurgency in Darfur that Washington calls genocide.

There have been numerous reports of clashes between highly politicised residents of camps in West Darfur and militias, often identified as Arab.

Violence has risen sharply since the International Criminal Court issued its warrant against President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. He responded by expelling 13 foreign aid groups accused of spying for the court. (Reuters)