KHARTOUM, March 26 (Reuters)[Also read on BBC: Mystery over Sudan air strike]- Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir departed Sudan on Thursday for Ethiopia in a show of defiance to an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court on charges of Darfur war crimes.
A Sudanese presidential palace source and a foreign ministry official said Bashir, who risks arrest any time he travels abroad, was on his way to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa but gave no further details.
Experts say at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.7 million driven from their homes in almost six years of ethnic and political fighting in Darfur in western Sudan. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.
The trip is Bashir’s third abroad since the ICC decision on March 4. He also visited neighbours Egypt and Eritrea this week following invitations from those countries for talks on the ICC move.
The Sudanese government said shortly after the ICC decision that Bashir would defy the warrant by travelling further afield to an Arab summit in Qatar next week.
But Sudanese officials have released statements raising questions over the wisdom of the trip, prompting speculation Sudan may send another representative.
Qatar’s prime minister has said the Gulf state was coming under pressure not to receive Bashir, though he did not say from whom. (Reporting by Andrew Heavens; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
March 26th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Go to hell ICC. Who cares about an organization that applies double standard? I don’t.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Of course, African dictators will do everything to protect each other. The question should be if the Europeans will accept the defiance of these dictators. Unless they put some kind of sanction against those tyrants who are not excuting the warrant, they will undermine their own authority. I don’t understand why European leaders baby sit African dictators.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
መለስም ዜናዊም ጋር ሆነ ኢሳያስ ጋር ቢንጦለጦል ያው ነው::ግም ለግም አብረህ አዝግም ነው ነገሩ::
March 26th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
where else can he go?
only where his likes are found.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
The Sudanese president Al Bashir has helped Meles Zenawi to seize power in Ethiopia. In return, Meles Zenawi has given fertile and rich Ethiopian land to the Sudan. The close friendship between Meles Zenawi and Bashir is expected to cost Ethiopia a lot more. The Sudan and Egypt`s long standing ambition of controlling the source of the blue Nile can be achieved during the reign of Meles Zenawi. I raised this issue of Meles Zenawi`s generousity in giving away Ethiopian land to his former allies with one TPLF supporter. I had found the TPLF supporter`s position to be very anti-Ethiopian which reflects the politics and policies of Meles Zenawi. The TPLF supporter told me that Meles Zenawi is addressing and correcting injustices done by the past expansionist regimes to the neigbouring countries. He concluded by stating that the neighbouring countries deserve the same justice Meles has delivered to the nations, nationalities and peoples in Ethiopia. Through my conversation with the TPLF supporter, I came to realize that what Meles Zenawi says in public and tells his followers or supporters are very different from each other.An even conflicting.
I personally do not understand the price tag ( the size of the land he would give away) Meles Zenawi has set to address the injustcies done to our neighbouring countries.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Both Meles and Isayas are rotten dictators competing for cheap profit from hosting al bashir…Waqaw, you are an idiot to say who cares for ICC, of course you do not care when you sell land to albashir and when woyane killed over 200 civilians, to mention the most recent tyranny. You are shortsighted who leave for bread, beer and women. Shame on you, meles, Iasayas, Al bashir!
March 26th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Al-Bashir visited his partner-in-crime,Meles Naziawi a dozen of times;they wined and dined together and made illegal business dealings involving selling and buying.
Shortly after Al-Bashir became the most wanted criminal,and ICC issued a warrant on his arrest,then members of the crimefamily sent their official to comfort Al-Bashir and gave him a secret phone number to keep in touch with them.Some weeks later they became frightened and told Al-Bashir to practice maximum precaution to not act weirdly and endager himself to being captured;one evening,on the second call they made to him,”The wedding has been postphoned and stay home.” they told him.
On that day of their gathering around a dining table, everyone ate and drank and both families recognized a strong feeling and a unique desire of marrying into each others’ family for future commonwealth.
If Bashir is captured, what will the future of members of the crimefamily hold???
March 26th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Al bashir changed his trip to another dictator, Muamar Qadafi
March 26th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
The sudan`s President AL BASHIRE officially visted EGYPT,YEMEN, ERITREA,DEJIBUTI and will be visting Kenya and Ethiopia, then will be visting more countries in Middle East before heading to visite china and Russia sometime next month.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I cant say it better than chana, bro, you put it in a simple term, words and short sentence. wonderful !!!!!
let me repeat what chane said again to everybody.
chane Says: where else can he go?
only where his likes are found.
March 26th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
wow next time i wil travel to sudan to sing for ethiopian who live in cartum thanks for weyane for give me and give me aportunity to visit africa incluid my cuntery ethiopia
March 26th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
one of the most isolated leader in the world Isayas was hurried to call al beshir to visit him in order to get a quick statement from westerners about his vist to Eritrea but ended with no vail.
Isayas and his dead country is forgoten and on the way for complete rottening.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Feyissa,
I am may be an idiot. But I do not worship foreign entities whose jurisdiction on third world powers is not justified You are more than welcome to kiss the white man’s ass, and we will se where you will endup after the whites are done with you.
March 27th, 2009 at 3:42 am
What do the four E’s have in common? The three E’s_Egypt, Eritrea and Ethiopia, all dictatorships invited Al-Bashir. The fourth E_England invited the mother of all dictators to London.Funny how things work!
I must admit i was one of those souls mortfied by the invitation of Meles Zenawi to the London summit. How could they invite a certified cold blooded killer? was the question nagging me all the time. But then, something clicked__my eureka moment. How often do we get this kind of opportunity to protest in front of the world’s powerful leaders assembled together? This is a one in a blue moon chance where we not only protest but can leave a foot print firmly planted on the ground. We should thank Gordon Brown for serving us Meles Zenawi on a silver platter. The ultimate question now is are we going to squander this opportunity with a mere “huge demonstration”?
In the fight against Meles Zenawi’s brutal regime, diaspora Ethiopians in England have shown unparalleled dedication and stamina compared to thier counterpart country men and women here in the u.s.a. So, it is with tremendous respect and admiration that i suggest some actions need to be taken when the demon arrives in London for G-20 summit.
The success of past demonstrations can only be measured by the invitation of Meles Zenawi. In other words,if past demonstrations were successful,Gordon Brown wouldn’t have touched Meles Zenawi with a 10 foot poll. Imagine for a moment, a mouse making love to an elephant. No impact. Correct? that’s how our protests have been perceived by the western world. They think we are paper tigers or barking dogs with no teeth. It is high timt that we change the equation from disrespect to respect and find a new approach to get there.
Ihave suggestions that will not see the light of day in most of the timid Ethiopian websites. So, here i go with the easy one’s. These actions do not require a huge number of people.
__Take over lobbies of major media outlets- the likes of BBC, THE GUARDIAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, THE ECONOMIST and so on. The media is hungry for any news with the flavor of visual confrontation.
__Block major intersections of London making life miserable to the average Joe. A sure way of carrying your message across to angry commuters.
__Distribute the grisly pictures of Melese’s victims throughout London by the thousands. Suggested locations: parks, shops, pubs, churches, the square mile, the leadenhall market…etc.Looking at bullet riddled bodies is a hair raising experience especially to the ferenjis.
__Enlarge these grisly pictures and hold them high in routes leading to the G20 summit. It will have a devastating effect on the psyche of Meles and Gordon Brown. Remember Obama will be there too!
__Chain yourselves up with well known monuments and throw away the key. Buckingham palace and St. Paul Cathedral comes to mind.
Folks! Don’t you want to see Meles wet his pants? Don’t you want to see him embarrassed in front of these powerful leaders? Do you whatever you can to win this game. Whatever negative outcome, it a small price to pay for your beloved country.
This is a time sensitive issue. Woyane is dismantling Ethiopia brick by brick. If we don’t act now, Ethiopia will vanish from the of the earth/map. Act now or kiss Ethiopia good bye.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:16 am
አል ባሺር ምንም አማራጭ የለም እጆህ በስላም ለአለም ፍርድ ቤት መስጠት ይቀላል ምክንያቱም ከአስታወሱ ሳዳም ሁሴን ላይ የደረስው እድል ነው የሚደርሶ መርዝ እንደቀመስ ውሻ ወደዛ ወደዚህ ቢሉ የገቡበትን ጉድጋድ ውስጥ ነው ምዕራቢያዊን የሚያወጦት እርግጥ ነው እርሶ ብቻ አይደሉም የአፍራካ የህዝብ መብት እረጋጭ ቀስ በቀስ እነሱም ይከታሎታል ስለዚህ ባይፈሩ ይሻላል ብቻዎን ስላልሆኑ
ውሽት ትዘገያለች እንጅ መቸም አትሞትም
March 27th, 2009 at 8:13 am
He won’t be touched in any of the African states.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I wouldn’t be surprised when African dictators help each other. If Al Bashir had dared, he would have gone a democratic country. Then we would have seen what would happen.
March 27th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Isaias and Meles are paid to protect him by the Arab tyrnats and dificult to Bring down his plane to kiss the Ethiopian soil. His buddies in Asmara and Mekelle are trying their best to protect him and what we need is a patriotic people like Moges Asegedom, Abraha Deboche to meet him eye to eye and let him know he will never succeed to buy our land.
March 27th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Yabetew Yefenda
Get lost you qimal agamie!
March 28th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Mr. Yabetew Yifenda,
You english killing me, please go find your text book.
March 31st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
support our brave fighters fighting weyane thug
ethiopia tikdem
http://www.eppfonline.org/