Bashir not welcome at summit
2010-03-22 22:25
Paris - President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked Sudan to send a representative to a France-Africa summit after Sudanese president and indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir was not invited, aides said on Monday.
Sarkozy sent a letter to Bashir requesting that an envoy be chosen to represent Sudan at the summit to be held in the Riviera city of Nice in late May, said officials at the Elysee palace.
The summit aimed at celebrating France's ties with its former African colonies had been scheduled for January in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
But France and Egypt agreed to move the venue to Nice to avoid inviting Bashir, who faces arrest under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur region.
Bashir's presence at the Egypt summit would have embarrassed France, a fervent supporter of the decision by the International Criminal Court to indict Beshir.