Malawi insists on hosting AU summit

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Malawi has said it will go ahead to host next month's African Union (AU) summit despite Sudan asking that the summit be shifted to the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, following Lilongwe's attempts to block President Omar Hassan al-Bashir from attending because he was a wanted war criminal by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a statement issued in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said Malawi was violating AU rules, including an obligation to provide "the required propitious frameworks and environment for the summit".

But Malawi's Information minister Moses Kumkuyu said Lilongwe was going ahead with hosting the conference, dismissing Khartoum's position as lacking basis.

"The statutes of the African Union give freedom to member states to make their grievances known," Kumkuyu told PANA Thursday. "We were only making our position known and that is not infringing on any statute of the AU."

Kumkuyu, who is the Malawi Government spokesman, said final touches for the summit are underway and "the summit is definitely taking place in Malawi. It is no offence to make our position known".

Malawi is scheduled to host the AU summit in the capital, Lilongwe, from 9-16 July.

Soon after assuming office following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika from cardiac arrest in April, President Joyce Banda disclosed that she had written the AU secretariat, asking it not to invite al-Bashir because he was "an economic risk" to Malawi.

Western donor capitals, notably the US, have made it clear they would cut off aid to all countries that host al-Bashir without arresting him. Malawi already suffered consequences when it hosted the Sudanese leader last year. Washington froze US$ 350.7 million meant to revitalise Malawi's ageing energy sector.

Africa, with more than 30 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, is divided on how it handles the Hague court. Many African countries believe the ICC is targeting African leaders but Botswana, Zambia and now Malawi have openly said they would perform their obligation to the ICC and arrest al-Bashir if he visits their countries while South Africa has said it would not grant him security if he visits.

Incoming ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, herself a Gambian, has since dispelled suggestions that the court is targeting Africans only.

"A lot of it is only perception," Bensouda, who takes over from the Argentine Luis Moreno-Ocampo this month, told a recent week-long Open Society conference in Cape Town, South Africa. "The perception is a dangerous thing; it's given to impress that the only place ICC is working is in Africa."

She added: "There are some elements that want this perception to persist."

The Lilongwe summit is particularly crucial for Sudan since its agenda includes talks over Khartoum's relations with South Sudan, which seceded last year under a 2005 peace deal.

The two countries are at odds over a long list of issues, including the position of the border, oil payments, debt and the status of citizens in one another's territory.

The summit will also attempt to break the logjam over who becomes AU Commission chairman. At its last summit in Addis, members failed to vote in a new chairman as there was a tie between incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon and South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
-0- PANA RT/VAO 7June2012