By Tesfa-alem Tekle

April 7, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) – Speaker of the Sudanese National Assembly on Monday appreciated Ethiopia for her strong opposition against the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s arrest warrant decision for Sudan’s head of state, President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

Speaker Ibrahim Al-Tahir

Speaker Ahmed Ibrahim El-Tahir who is in the Ethiopian capital to attend the 120th Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Assembly (IPU) has hold discussions with his Ethiopian counterpart, Teshome Toga.

On March 4, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Ethiopia is one of the first countries which swiftly voiced her opposition against last month’s ICC decision against Sudanese president.

The government of Ethiopia earlier last month condemned the arrest warrant issued by ICC saying it is against the interest of Sudan and Africa. It also said that the move undermines peace efforts.

"Though the Sudanese issue is not the agenda of the 120th IPU assembly we want to clearly demonstrate our country’s prevailing issue to IPU member nations" Ahmed Ibrahin EL-Tahir said.

"We will keep on trying to change the negative impacts of the arrest warrant" the Sudanese speaker added.

Conferring with his Sudanese counterpart, Ethiopia’ house speaker, Teshome Toga reaffirmed that his country, Ethiopia, would never accept decision made by ICC.

Beshir, 65, who is expected to visit Ethiopia in the upcoming days, is the first sitting president to face ICC arrest warrant since the world’s first independent and permanent tribunal on war crimes (ICC) began its work in 2002.

(ST)