Nairobi/Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on
Monday left Sudan for the first time since the International Criminal
Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him for war crimes in
the Darfur province.
Arab news channel Al Jazeera reported that al-Bashir had flown to
Eritrea for a one-day visit after the Eritrean president invited him
out of solidarity.
Over the weekend, Sudan's highest religious authority the
Committee of Islamic Scholars warned al-Bashir against travelling to
an annual Arab summit in Qatar later this month.
The clerics issued a non-binding fatwa, or religious ruling,
saying that al-Bashir should stay at home due to a threat from
'enemies of the nation.'
Sudan had earlier said that al-Bashir would ignore the warrant and
travel to Doha.
Neither Qatar nor Eritrea, like Sudan, have signed up to the ICC
and have no obligation to arrest al-Bashir.
The Arab League has also said it will take no action over the
arrest warrant.
However, the Sudanese government is concerned al-Bashir's plane
could be intercepted in mid-air and forced to land in a country where
he could be arrested and taken to The Hague.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said that al-Bashir
could be arrested as soon as he enters international airspace.
Sudan earlier this month expelled over a dozen foreign aid
agencies providing food, medical and other assistance in Darfur after
the arrest warrant was issued.
The agencies were accused of spying for the US and providing
intelligence to the ICC.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the US would
hold al-Bashir responsible for any deaths that come about as a result
of the expulsions.
The ICC accuses al-Bashir of genocide and other war crimes carried
out in Darfur.
The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab
tribesmen took up arms against what they called decades of neglect
and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million
displaced by the conflict. The Sudanese government claims only around
10,000 have died.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story