Darfur: Sudan rejects Darfur international conference

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.