Sudan’s Bashir receives verbal message from Chadian President
March 24, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on Sunday received a verbal message from his Chadian counterpart Idris Deby, state media reported. Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno (R) shakes hands with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir on arrival for a meeting gathering leaders from the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) in N’Djamena on February 16, 2013 (BRAHIM ADJI/AFP/Getty Images) Sudan’s official news agency (SUNA) said that the message tackled bilateral relations and consultations on international issues of mutual concern but provided no further details. SUNA quoted the Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat, who conveyed the message, as underscoring the firmness of the Sudanese-Chadian relations. In his response to a question on the news that Chad had succumbed to pressures to postpone the Green Belt Summit this month due to the participation of Bashir, Mahamat dismissed these reports as baseless, affirming his country’s "unshakable" stance which conforms to the African Union (AU) position in this regard. The Sudanese leader was scheduled to fly to the Chadian capital Ndjamena this week to participate in the summit, which has since been rescheduled for reasons which remain unclear. Last week, the Sudanese minister of environment and forestry, Hassan Abdel-Gadir Hilal, said his country would be present at the summit next month but did not say whether Bashir will lead Sudan’s delegation. In a separate interview this week with the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper Chad’s top diplomat also declined to confirm Bashir’s attendance. Chad came under fire for receiving Bashir three times despite arrest warrants for him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued in 2009 & 2010 on 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Darfur since 2003. The central African nation maintains it is simply adhering to an AU decision urging member states not to cooperate with the ICC in apprehending the Sudanese leader, though several countries did not abide by it. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
