Angelo Izama
28 July 2008
Kampala — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will meet President Yoweri Museveni this week over the indictment by the International Criminal Court of Sudanese President Omar-el-Bashir, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Mubarak is expected to arrive Wednesday enroute from South Africa sources at the ministry said.
The Egyptian head of state is officially on a tour to boost bilateral relations with Uganda and South Africa. "President Yoweri Museveni and Mr Mubarak will discuss how to deal with the indictment of Sudanese President Omar el Bashir as well as how to advise him [Bashir] on resolving Darfur and moving forward the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [between North and South Sudan]" said Mr Okello Oryem, the state minister for international affairs.
Yesterday Mr. Mubarak met Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha in Cairo. According to Egypt's official news service mr Mubarak pledged to support Gen. Bashir on the crisis.
On July 14, ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo announced he was seeking an arrest warrant for Gen. Bashir over charges of genocide and war crimes sparking a whirlwind diplomacy campaign by Khartoum focused on African states as well as the Arab league.
In an appeal to President Yoweri Museveni soon after the pending indictments were announced at The Hague, Sudan's ambassador to Kampala Hassan Gadkarim said Uganda should use its position as chair of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to mobilise opposition to a warrant of arrest for Gen. Bashir.
Uganda has the most experience with the ICC having been the first country to seek the court's help with the Lord's Resistance Army in 2003.
The Arab league held crisis talks in Cairo in which its foreign ministers called on the ICC to back off Gen. Bashir.
The African Union has urged Mr Ocampo to suspend any plans to arrest Gen. Bashir saying it would jeopardise attempts for a negotiated settlement to the crisis in Darfur and Southern Sudan.
There are concerns by Ugandan authorities too that the indictment of gen. Bashir could negatively affect attempts to settle the northern Uganda crisis with the Khartoum-backed LRA rebels of Joseph Kony.According to Mr Oryem, security in Somalia as well as bilateral trade between Uganda and Egypt will also be on the table.
"We feel we can do more trade with Egypt. The Presidents will also talk about Agricultural cooperation in view of the rising costs of oil and food prices" he said. The visit is also meant to highlight the Nile Basin Initiative, an agreement being negotiated between states along the Nile River on joint use and conservation of its waters.
Uganda and Egypt are bound by agreements on the Nile which MPs in Kampala want re-negotiated. The visit is being kept a low-key affair over security concerns, sources said.
Monitor. The Egyptian leader has been shy of travelling to neighbouring countries after an attempt to assassinate him as he arrived for the Africa Union summit in Ethiopia in 1995.
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