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17 March 2009 Khartoum - Sudan will not attend an
international conference on Darfur attended by
Britain, France and the United States, state minister
for foreign affairs Ali Karti said on Saturday.
"We do not agree to a international conference on
Darfur that would be attended by the US, the UK and
France," Karti said.
He made the remarks after Egyptian Foreign Minister
Ahmed Abul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman
met with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir in
Khartoum.
Egypt had called for an international conference after
the International Criminal Court issued last week an
arrest warrant for Beshir for war crimes committed in
Darfur - its first ever warrant for a sitting head of
state.
But Karti said that Sudan would not attend such a
meeting and that it considered its participation in
talks hosted last month by Qatar with Darfur rebels as
sufficient.
"Creating a new forum with the participation of the
United States, Britain and France is unnaceptable," he
said.
In February, Sudan signed a confidence-building
agreement with the most active Darfuri rebel group,
the Justice and Equality Movement, at a meeting in
Qatar paving the way for further talks.
"If the Doha peace talks fail, then, maybe, we might
consider," attending an international conference,
Karti added.
Abul Gheit earlier told reporters in Khartoum that an
international conference had been first proposed by
the Arab League in July 2008, underscoring the need to
find solutions to "all the crises" in Sudan, including
the Darfur conflict and the ICC arrest warrant for
Beshir.
Egypt and the Arab League had rejected the ICC warrant
for Beshir, saying it threatened peace talks in Sudan,
and vowed to lobby the United Nations Security Council
to suspend the court's proceedings.
The United Nations says that 300 000 people have died
in Darfur since ethnic rebels took up arms against the
Arab-dominated Khartoum government, complaining of
discrimination.
The ICC accused Beshir of ordering war crimes during
the conflict. |
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