ROUNDUP: Sudan's President al-Bashir in Cairo despite ICC warrant

ROUNDUP: Sudan's President al-Bashir in Cairo despite ICC warrantCairo  - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is the subject of an international arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday.

The trip was al-Bashir's latest in a tour of countries that, like Egypt, have not signed the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court (ICC), and so are not obligated to act on the warrant the court issued for al-Bashir earlier this month.

The ICC has accused al-Bashir of complicity in crimes against humanity committed in the government's campaign against rebels in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur.

Neither president made a public statement after their meeting, but Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told the official MENA news agency that Egypt had promised to send doctors to Darfur to offer humanitarian assistance after al-Bashir expelled foreign aid workers soon after the arrest warrant was issued.

Abul-Gheit said Egypt would also work with Arab and Islamic aid organizations to encourage them to fill the gap in humanitarian aid left by the aid groups' expulsion.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief John Holmes on Tuesday warned that more than 1 million people risk losing housing, food, medicine and other basic supplies after al-Bashir expelled 13 international aid organizations shortly after the ICC issued its warrant.

The announcement came shortly after an international aid worker was killed in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur.

On Monday, al-Bashir travelled to Eritrea, which has also not signed the Rome Statute. He has said he will attend an Arab League summit in Qatar next week. Qatar, like most of the 22 members of the Arab League, has also not signed the treaty that established the ICC.

Senior diplomats from many Arab League member states, including Egypt, have repeatedly expressed their support for the Sudanese president in his confrontation with the ICC and the UN Security Council.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters the United States was under "no obligation" to arrest al-Bashir either.

"We are under no obligation to the ICC to arrest President Bashir," Wood said. "We're not a party to the Rome Statute. Let's leave it at that."

The US has been sharply critical of Sudan's decision to expel aid workers after the ICC arrest warrant, but did not block UN Security Council Resolution 1593, which required the government of Sudan and all state parties to the Rome Statute to execute the court's warrant, and "urged" states that have not signed the treaty to execute the warrant. (dpa)

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