Sudan’s Leader Casts Shadow on Summit

(Business Day)--Turkey hosts a summit of African leaders this week, which will be overshadowed by the expected presence of Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

It will be his first overseas trip since a global court moved to indict him for genocide. Bashir, leading Sudan’s delegation, arrived in Istanbul late yesterday to take part in the Turkish-African economic summit today and tomorrow, a Turkish foreign ministry official said yesterday.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last month asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, saying his state apparatus had killed 35,000 people and indirectly at least another 100,000. Bashir has said he would not work with the court and called its move part of a neocolonialist agenda to protect developed countries’ interests. Asked about the possibility of a court warrant being issued while the Sudanese leader was in Istanbul, a Turkish foreign ministry official declined to speculate on what Turkey would do.

‘Bashir was invited to the summit as an African country leader and there is no arrest warrant against him at this moment. Should there are any requests, we will evaluate them then’, the official said. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey has not ratified the treaty forming the international court, but is under pressure to become a member as part of negotiations to join the European Union.

Court judges could take months to issue a warrant, but have never failed to issue one after it was requested . The court returned from recess yesterday. International experts estimate about 200,000 people have died in Darfur, with 2.5million driven from their homes, since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003. They accuse the government in Khartoum of discrimination. Sudan says western media have exaggerated the conflict, and the death toll is less than 10,000.

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