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Sudan to lobby UN to prevent trial of president

Sudan heads to the UN this week to push a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort to avert the prosecution of the country’s longtime president on charges of genocide in Darfur.

But prospects seemed dim at a time when Sudan has shown little willingness to compromise and launched an expansive military offensive against rebels in western Darfur region.

Efforts by African countries, the tiny Gulf state of Qatar and France to solve the crisis also have not yielded tangible results.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked judges to issue an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges he carried out genocide in Darfur.

Up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been chased from their homes in the region since fighting between government-backed janjaweed militia and rebels began in early 2003.

The court is expected to make its decision before the end of the year, and the Sudanese government has been lobbying African and Arab countries to support its attempts to evade al-Bashir’s prosecution.

The African Union has asked the UN Security Council to freeze the ICC case against al-Bashir, which can do so if it deems the prosecution as a threat to peace and security. While the Security Council took note of the request in July, it had said it would revisit it later.

But it appears Sudan is now shying away from asking the council to halt the case, as it becomes increasingly less likely that it would be able to avert a veto within the council.

The council initially asked the ICC to investigate the Darfur crisis and freezing the process at this point could be seen as not only undermining the court but also emboldening the Sudanese government.

Sudan also lost one of its biggest supporters in the council, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who announced on Sunday he would resign as soon as a new president is chosen. He sent his foreign minister instead to the UN General Assembly meeting this week.

For now, Sudan plans to focus its attention on the General Assembly, which it will address today.

Al-Bashir’s spokesman, Mahfuz Faidul, said the Sudanese delegation, headed by Vice President Ali Osman Taha, will tell the assembly about Sudan’s efforts to reach a peace deal in Darfur.

Taha will hold talks with several leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatar’s crown prince, the UN funded radio Miraya reported, quoting Sudan’s ambassador to the UN. He is also expected to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sudanese media reported.

Faidul said Khartoum has taken measures to show it is serious about peace in Darfur, including appointing its own Darfur-based prosecutor to look into complaints of violence and reaching out to different Sudanese factions.

A day before flying to New York, Taha made amends with a disgruntled ex-rebel leader who had signed a peace deal with the government in 2006 but returned to fighting early this summer over what he saw as failure to implement the deal.
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