By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan’s president will travel to Ghana in October, officials said on Tuesday, even though a ruling on an international arrest warrant for Darfur war crimes is pending.
The Ghana trip, if it goes ahead, will be President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s first visit to a country that ratified the treaty setting up the International Criminal Court since its chief prosecutor moved to indict him.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor asked judges to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir in July, accusing him of genocide and other crimes in the remote western region.
Ghana, as a “state party” of the ICC, would have to arrest the president if the judges issued the warrant during his visit, court officials confirmed on Tuesday.
Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadul told Reuters Bashir would face no real risk of arrest when he attends the 6th Summit conference of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group in Accra from Oct. 1-3.
“His Excellency will be there in Accra. But there is no risk,” he said.
“The judges have not made a decision about the warrant and we are now in negotiations with the African Union over the issue,” he added referring to ongoing efforts by the African Union and other bodies to defer the court’s action.
The global court’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo this month said he thought it was unlikely the judges would reach a decision by October.
But the three judges have not given any indication about when they might make the ruling and commentators have said it could come any time between September and the end of the year.
LOBBYING
A top level delegation led by Sudan’s vice president Ali Osman Mohamed Taha travelled to New York this week to build up support and lobby for members of the U.N. Security Council to defer the court action.
The African Union, Arab League and other alliances have already urged the Security Council to use its powers under Article 16 of the ICC statute to freeze any proceedings against Bashir to avoid shattering the fragile peace process in Darfur.
A spokeswoman for the ICC confirmed that Ghana was listed as a “state party” of the global court.
“Because we don’t have a police force of our own, we rely on state parties,” she said.
More than five years of fighting in Darfur has killed 200,000 and driven more than 2.5 million from their homes, say international experts. Khartoum puts the death count at 10,000. (Editing by Louise Ireland)