Egypt backs Sudanese president
By Neil Macfarquhar and Sharon Otterman
Published: March 25, 2009
Egyptian officials welcomed President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan to Cairo on Wednesday, undeterred by the arrest warrant that has been issued against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity by an international court.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and senior government ministers received Mr. Bashir at the airport in Cairo, then held a meeting to discuss developments related to the arrest warrant and conflict in Darfur, the Egyptian foreign minister said. It was the second international visit by Mr. Bashir this week, following a stop in Eritrea on Monday. The embattled leader has also pledged to attend an Arab League summit meeting in Qatar next week.
President Bashir has been defiant since a warrant was issued for his arrest March 4 by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges that he knowingly directed a campaign of murder, rape, torture, pillage and displacement of large numbers of civilians in Darfur. Under the International Criminal Court's charter, its 108 member states are obliged to arrest Mr. Bashir if he sets foot on their territory.
But the Arab League and the African Union have called on the United Nations Security Council to suspend the arrest warrant against Mr. Bashir, calling it a challenge to regional sovereignty and arguing that it would further destabilize Sudan.
While Mr. Bashir, in theory, risks arrest when he leaves Sudan, the International Criminal Court has no enforcement police force, and Egypt, Eritrea and Qatar are not signatories to the court's founding treaty.
"There is an Egyptian, Arab, African position that rejects the way the court has dealt with the status of the president of Sudan," Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said at a news conference Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
The United Nations, meanwhile, warned Tuesday that while a combination of stopgap measures by United Nations agencies and the Sudanese government has kept aid flowing in the world's largest relief program in Darfur, the makeshift effort cannot be sustained "These are Band-Aid solutions, not long-term solutions," John Holmes, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, told reporters Tuesday, summarizing a joint assessment by the United Nations and Sudan last week after the government in Khartoum shut down 16 aid organizations.
The decision to expel 13 foreign organizations and disband 3 local ones immediately followed the International Criminal Court's decision on March 4 to issue the arrest warrant for the Mr. Bashir.
In another development, Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, urged the Sudanese in an audiotape released on Tuesday to undertake jihad against what he said was a "crusade" being organized by the West to manufacture a crisis in Sudan as an excuse to invade another Islamic land.
Both sides in the Darfur conflict are predominantly Muslim, and Mr. Zawahri said he was not defending the Bashir government. Indeed, he said that it was "reaping what it sowed" and that it should repent for pandering to the West.
Mr. Zawahri questioned why the International Criminal Court had not issued any arrest warrants for Western leaders. He wondered why the United Nations and the international community had not reacted to Palestinian suffering the way they had to suffering in Darfur.
"Why hasn't the United Nations and the international community intervened to lift the siege from Gaza, while it pretends to cry over the people of Darfur being deprived of relief and aid?" he said on the 17-minute tape.
Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from Nairobi, Kenya.
By Neil Macfarquhar and Sharon Otterman
Published: March 25, 2009
Egyptian officials welcomed President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan to Cairo on Wednesday, undeterred by the arrest warrant that has been issued against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity by an international court.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and senior government ministers received Mr. Bashir at the airport in Cairo, then held a meeting to discuss developments related to the arrest warrant and conflict in Darfur, the Egyptian foreign minister said. It was the second international visit by Mr. Bashir this week, following a stop in Eritrea on Monday. The embattled leader has also pledged to attend an Arab League summit meeting in Qatar next week.
President Bashir has been defiant since a warrant was issued for his arrest March 4 by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges that he knowingly directed a campaign of murder, rape, torture, pillage and displacement of large numbers of civilians in Darfur. Under the International Criminal Court's charter, its 108 member states are obliged to arrest Mr. Bashir if he sets foot on their territory.
But the Arab League and the African Union have called on the United Nations Security Council to suspend the arrest warrant against Mr. Bashir, calling it a challenge to regional sovereignty and arguing that it would further destabilize Sudan.
While Mr. Bashir, in theory, risks arrest when he leaves Sudan, the International Criminal Court has no enforcement police force, and Egypt, Eritrea and Qatar are not signatories to the court's founding treaty.
"There is an Egyptian, Arab, African position that rejects the way the court has dealt with the status of the president of Sudan," Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said at a news conference Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
The United Nations, meanwhile, warned Tuesday that while a combination of stopgap measures by United Nations agencies and the Sudanese government has kept aid flowing in the world's largest relief program in Darfur, the makeshift effort cannot be sustained "These are Band-Aid solutions, not long-term solutions," John Holmes, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, told reporters Tuesday, summarizing a joint assessment by the United Nations and Sudan last week after the government in Khartoum shut down 16 aid organizations.
The decision to expel 13 foreign organizations and disband 3 local ones immediately followed the International Criminal Court's decision on March 4 to issue the arrest warrant for the Mr. Bashir.
In another development, Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, urged the Sudanese in an audiotape released on Tuesday to undertake jihad against what he said was a "crusade" being organized by the West to manufacture a crisis in Sudan as an excuse to invade another Islamic land.
Both sides in the Darfur conflict are predominantly Muslim, and Mr. Zawahri said he was not defending the Bashir government. Indeed, he said that it was "reaping what it sowed" and that it should repent for pandering to the West.
Mr. Zawahri questioned why the International Criminal Court had not issued any arrest warrants for Western leaders. He wondered why the United Nations and the international community had not reacted to Palestinian suffering the way they had to suffering in Darfur.
"Why hasn't the United Nations and the international community intervened to lift the siege from Gaza, while it pretends to cry over the people of Darfur being deprived of relief and aid?" he said on the 17-minute tape.
Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from Nairobi, Kenya.
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