Sudan’s Bashir to visit China despite international arrest warrant

SUDANESE President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is expected to travel to China today for a four-day visit, the foreign ministry said, defying an international warrant for his arrest.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010, accusing him of masterminding genocide and other atrocities in his campaign to crush a revolt in the western Darfur region.

Members of the ICC are obliged to act on arrest warrants. China is not a member.

Bashir, who rejects the court’s authority, has managed to travel within Africa and the Middle East.

In June, he was forced to flee South Africa, however, after a court ruled he should be banned from leaving pending the outcome of a hearing on his possible arrest.

Sudan’s foreign ministry said Bashir would visit China for a commemoration of the end of World War II.