China welcomes Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir

Controversial leader to meet President Hu Jintao despite being subject of war crimes warrants The Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, will visit China this month despite facing two international arrest warrants for war crimes. A foreign ministry spokesman said the allies would discuss Darfur, next month’s secession of south Sudan, and an expansion in co-operation. The announcement comes a week after the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, told the UN security council that genocide and crimes against humanity continued unabated in Darfur because Bashir had learned to defy the council’s authority . Moreno Ocampo said the crimes included air attacks on civilians and the direct killing of members of the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Bashir denies all the allegations and does not recognise the ICC’s authority. China is a permanent member of the security council, which urged its members to support the findings of the ICC when it referred Sudan to the court. However, China is not obliged to execute the ICC warrants because it has never signed up to the body. China has previously warned that the charges against Bashir could lead to greater instability in the region. Bashir visited Chad and Kenya last year without being arrested even though both countries recognise the ICC. The African Union had urged its members not to execute the warrants. Bashir will meet President Hu Jintao of China and other senior leaders during his 27-30 June visit. Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: “The two countries, accepting the new situation, will discuss how to advance and consolidate our traditional friendship, expand and deepen comprehensive co-operation and exchange views on the north-south peace process and Darfur issue. “Bilateral trade is rising. Sudan has already become China’s third-largest trade partner in Africa with co-operation in each sphere consistently developing.” Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said: “The Chinese government loves to claim it is a friend of the African people. If that is the case they have no business welcoming someone who has done tremendous harm to precisely those people. “The fact that at a time when some of the atrocities in Sudan were at their peak, it was not only the principal supplier of arms but the principal purchaser of Sudanese oil means it has questions to answer about its own complicity. It ought to be more concerned about pressing for justice than helping Bashir evade precisely that.” After coming under sustained pressure in the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, China sent peacekeepers to Darfur and appointed a special representative to the region. The Khartoum government will lose about a third of the country’s territory and up to three quarters of its oil reserves when the south secedes on 9 July. A UN humanitarian report said on Thursday that fighting between the northern Sudanese army and armed groups aligned with south Sudan had led to dozens of deaths and opened up a new front. China has called for a peaceful resolution to the clashes along the internal border. In April Bashir told the Guardian that he accepted full personal responsibility for the conflict in Darfur but accused the ICC of “double standards” and conducting “a campaign of lies” . He said Britain and other western countries were pursuing a politically motivated vendetta against him with the aim of forcing regime change in Sudan. Sudan Africa China Omar al-Bashir Human rights International criminal court Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 16, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.