Kampala - Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir will not attend an African leaders' summit in Uganda next week, an official confirmed Friday, after a top official of the international court urged Kampala to arrest him for the war crimes committed in his country's region of Western Darfur. "The ministry of foreign affairs has said that he (Bashir) will send a representative," presidential spokesman, Joseph Tamale Mirundi told the German Press Agency.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted the Sudanese leader for war crimes in strife-torn Darfur where tens of thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in battles between government-supported militias and the army against rebels based there.
The ICC chief prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo during a visit to Uganda on Wednesday urged the government to immediately arrest Bashir who had been invited to attend the Smart Partnership Conference which begins on July 26.
The African Union ruled during its recent meeting in Libya that it will not be obliged to observe the ICC ruling against the Sudanese leader pending an outcome into an inquiry into the allegations.
Botswana is the only country on the continent that has made it clear that it will meet the ICC demands.
Uganda, which is a signatory to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, had however issued contradictory statements over the Beshir's indictment.
While foreign minister Sam Kuteesa said Kampala follows the AU's position, a junior minister announced Tuesday that Bashir would be arrested as soon as arrives for the summit, causing a near diplomatic row between the two countries.
