20101122
africanews

Sudan president Omar Hassan al-Bashir will fly to African Union headquarter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the 15th extraordinary Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) Summit on Sudan. Al-Bashir would lead a delegation to the special summit to take stock of the progress of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

The summit begins Monday and is to encourage the parties to ensure full implementation of the remaining CPA agreement that brought a referendum that may divide African’s largest nation.

The Igad brokered CPA was signed in 2005 by the Government of Sudan and the Southern based Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Army (SPLMA) to end two decades of warfare.

The summit was called on by Kenyan and it was expected to be held in Naivasha, Kenya where North and South Sudan had signed Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), but the risk that Bashir’s presence would provide the main focus of international attention during the meeting forced a rethink.

The meeting was relocated to Addis Ababa to avert a potential diplomatic crisis over Bashir’s attendance.

Kenya which is a full member of the ICC had faced international community criticizes after president al-Bashir appeared at the promulgation of the country’s new constitution last August.

The international Criminal Court (ICC) charged Sudan president al-Bashir war crimes against humanity that happened in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

It issued the arrest warrant against al-Bashir and urged its members to arrest him but kenya did not follow the issue.

The Sudanese leader denies the charges and denigrates them as part of a Western ploy to topple his regime.

However, Ethiopia is not a state member of the ICC and therefore under no legal obligation to arrest Al-Bashir. It has already criticized the court’s decision and received Al-Bashir in April 2009.

The summit in Addis Ababa will to bring together the President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir and SPLA leader Salva Kirr with Igad six members include Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia and Djibouti.