Region | Sudan
Islamic ministers to discuss ruling on Al Bashir
The Executive Committee of the Islamic Foreign Ministers will hold an emergency meeting at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) headquarters in Jeddah tomorrow to discuss the implications of the recent International Criminal Court (ICC) ruling against Sud-anese President Omer Hassan Al Bashir.
- By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent
- Published: 23:35 August 3, 2008
Riyadh: The Executive Committee of the Islamic Foreign Ministers will hold an emergency meeting at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) headquarters in Jeddah tomorrow to discuss the implications of the recent International Criminal Court (ICC) ruling against Sud-anese President Omer Hassan Al Bashir.
The OIC regards the ruling as threatening the unity and integrity of Sudan.
OIC spokesman Ambassador Atal Mannan Bakheet told Gulf News the meeting would work out an action mechanism to support Sudan against the allegations of ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo who accuses Bashir of masterminding a genocide campaign in Sudan's western region of Darfur and asked a three-judge panel at the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Al Bashir.
OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu made recently made contact with a number of Islamic countries which led to the arrangement of this meeting.
In his statement, Bakheet noted the OIC Secretary-General warned against the serious consequences of this move by the ICC for the indictment of President Al Bashir which he described as coming at a sensitive time and threatening the fragile peace in Darfur.
Signatures
The OIC Executive Committee is made up of Malaysia, Egypt, Senegal, Pakistan, Syria, Uganda and Saudi Arabia as well as Sudan which called for this meeting. However the meeting will be open for OIC member states willing to take part.
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Meanwhile, an international commission formed to defend Sudan against the ICC ruling has announced its intention to collect 10 million signatures denouncing and rejecting the Ocampo allegations and to submit a legal memorandum to the ICC in the Hague.
The commission's secretary-general, Dr Mohammad Al Ansari, a British national of Sudanese origin, expressed his conviction that there are intelligence organisations and parties hostile to Sudan behind the ICC ruling. In a statement to Gulf News he said his commission would stage campaigns inside and outside Sudan to collect the required signatures.
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