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| Africa Horn |
| Shoulderboards Man arrives in Turkey for summit |
| 2008-08-19 |
| Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir arrived in Turkey on Monday for a summit of African leaders this week in his first trip abroad since an international court moved to indict him for genocide. Herblock did a cartoon in the very early 50s about a European summit that General Franco showed up at. Herb draw him reeking and stinking, with flies buzzing around him. I always think of that cartoon when things like this happen. International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last month asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, saying his state apparatus had killed 35,000 people and indirectly at least another 100,000. Asked about the possibility of an ICC warrant being issued while Bashir was in Istanbul, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official declined to speculate on what Turkey would do. "Bashir was invited to the summit as an African country leader and there is no arrest warrant against him at this moment. If there are any requests, we will evaluate them then," the official said. NATO member Turkey has not ratified the treaty forming the ICC but is under pressure to become a member as part of negotiations to join the European Union. ICC judges could take weeks or months to issue a warrant, but have never failed to issue one after it was requested by the prosecutor. The court returned from recess on Monday. International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million were driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government in Khartoum of neglect. Sudan blames the Western media for exaggerating the conflict and puts the death toll at 10,000. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Herblock did a cartoon in the very early 50s about a European summit that General Franco showed up at. Franco killed a lot less people than commie didctators in Poland or Hungary that Mr Hderblock wouild have never even thought of caricaturing. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-08-19 14:46 |
| #1 ICC judges could take weeks or months to issue a warrant... Or years. Or decades. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-08-19 12:53 |