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UNITED NATIONS, March 4 (KUNA) -- Sudanese UN envoy Abdelmahmoud Mohamed on
Wednesday said President Omar Al-Bashir will continue to travel abroad and may
even attend the Arab Summit in Qatar later this month, when invited, and
despite the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s decision earlier today to
issue an arrest warrant against the Sudanese leader for warms crimes committed
in Darfur.
"His international schedule will be done in the same routine manner ...
when the invitation comes, he will go definitely. There is no change
whatsoever. Of course he will travel, because many countris are saying the ICC
ruling is politically motivated," Mohamed told a press conference in answer to
a question.
Only states parties to the ICC Rome Statute are obliged to abide by the ICC
ruling. The only Arab states parties are Jordan and Djibouti.
Mohamed also said his government will no longer seek a Security Council
action to defer for twelve months the implementation of the ICC decision, as
stipulated by article 16 of the ICC Rome Statute.
Article 16 states that no prosecution may begin under this Statute for a
period of twelve months, renewable, after the Security Council has requested
the court to that effect.
"Indeed, we are not at all going to demand article 16, because our demand
now is to dismiss this whole criminal plot against our country ... Our
objective will continue to be the peace process and reaching a final and
lasting solution for the problem of Darfur whatever the cost might be," he
said.
He reiterated his government's position that it will not abide by the ICC
decision which is an "insult to justice."
He described the conflict in Darfur as a "traditional conflict blown out of
proportions" by the US, UK and France which want to fragment Sudan. "We will
not fall in their trap," he said.
He even accused these contries of targeting "our oil, our wealth and
political importance in the continent, ... and our Sudanese-Chinese relations,
" accusing France of having re-colonisation ambitions in the continent.
He stressed, however, that Sudan will continue to cooperate with the UN and
the international community as usual. (end)
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