Monday, 9 November 2009Turkish officials say Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will not attend a summit of Islamic leaders in Istanbul Monday.
Turkey said last week that Mr. Bashir would be present for the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit, despite the international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.
However, Turkish government officials now say they have learned President Bashir will not be coming.
The European Union had raised objections to the Sudanese president attending the summit.
The International Criminal Court has indicted President Bashir on charges of masterminding a campaign of rape, murder, and other crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Mr. Bashir has repeatedly defied the ICC by traveling abroad but only to countries that are not parties to the ICC and can guarantee his safety.
On Sunday, he was in Egypt for the start of the China-Africa summit.
Two weeks ago, he stayed away from an African Union summit in Nigeria, after human rights groups demanded that authorities there arrest him if he came.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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Monday, 9 November 2009
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