Sudan president's state visit to China delayed

Sudan president's state visit to China delayed

2011-06-28 00:01:15 GMT+7 (ICT)

BEIJING (BNO NEWS) -- Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir was forced to delay his state visit to China after his jet was diverted to Iran, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The statement confirmed that the plane carrying president al-Bashir returned to Iran as he was heading to China for a state visit. Sources told Sudan Tribune that the route was deemed risky and therefore they decided to return to Tehran.

"The plane of Field Marshal Omer al-Bashir President of the Republic to the Chinese capital Beijing, which had been scheduled for yesterday [sunday] evening was delayed because of an amendment that took place on the route of the presidential plane over the territory of Turkmenistan at a time that it was no longer possible to pass through the new path forcing the pilot to return to Iran after flying over the territory of Turkmenistan at 9:30 yesterday evening Iran local time," the statement said.

It is not clear, however, why the plane could not continue on to Beijing. The ministry said they expect Bashir to arrive in Beijing later on Monday after assigning a new route to the presidential plane.

Bashir, who faces indictment from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes, had been due to arrive in Beijing for talks that will focus on Sudan's impending split into two countries.

His invite by Beijing has outraged human right groups who wanted China to withdraw the invitation or arrest him. But China said that it was "reasonable" to invite Bashir and noted it was not an ICC member. Bashir was due to stay in China until Thursday.

President al-Bashir has threatened the international community with retaliation and more crimes after the ICC issued arrest warrants against him on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, making him the incumbent president to be indicted by the court.

Darfur has been severely affected by the armed conflict between rebels and government forces. In February 2003, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebelled against the Sudanese government due to the oppression of non-Arab people in Darfur.

After years of fighting, the Sudanese government and the JEM agreed on a ceasefire in February 2010. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million others displaced so far.

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