October 25, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir ordered the formation of a committee to review the findings of the African Union Panel on Darfur (AUPD), state agency reported.
- Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir
Sudan official news agency (SUNA) said that the committee will be headed by 2nd Vice President Ali Osman Taha.
A statement carried out by SUNA said the government “expressed deep gratitude” for the work of the panel lauding the tours it made during the course of its work.
The commission will finalize the government’s response and convey it at the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council session that will be held in Abuja, Nigeria next week.
Sudan’s delegation will be headed by Taha instead of Bashir, who has an outstanding arrest warrant for him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), amid controversy on whether Nigeria, a signatory to the ICC treaty, should arrest him.
A source in the Nigerian government told Agence France Presse (AFP) this week that Bashir is “still considering the invitation, afraid we may turn him in, which will not happen”.
“Hand him over to who when he is invited by the AU?” he added.
The invitation by extended by Nigeria to Bashir caused outcry by rights groups internally and externally.
In an open letter to Umaru Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s president, four national non-governmental organizations responded to Beshir’s invitation to attend the African Union meeting.
"We are very concerned that despite Nigeria’s international legal obligations including under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which Nigeria has ratified, your government has invited President al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity."
The NGOs, supported by international human rights organizations including Amnesty, added that given Nigeria’s recent election to the UN Security Council it has an even bigger "responsibility" and "obligation" to deny a safe haven to the Sudanese president.
An unnamed Sudanese presidential source speaking to the London based Al-Hayat newspaper said that Bashir stayed away “not out of fear that Bashir would be arrested but out of [our] evaluation”.
Since the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir last March, he has been to seven countries - Eritrea, Egypt, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe — none of which are signatories to the ICC treaty.
Last month Al-Bashir’s adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen told Associated Press in an interview that the ICC arrest warrant forced his boss to limit his movements abroad.
(ST)
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