After delay, Sudan's Bashir heads to China

TEHRAN, June 27 (UPI) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was on his way to Beijing after making an unscheduled stop to Tehran in an apparent effort to escape arrest, Iran said.

Authorities in the Iranian government confirmed that a plane carrying the Sudanese president left for Beijing from Tehran, the Daily Telegraph newspaper in London reports. The visit to China marks the Sudanese president's first since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1593 in 2005 referred Sudan to the International Criminal Court after evidence emerged of serious rights violations in Darfur.

Bashir is accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Khartoum isn't party to the Rome Statute that created the international court. Neither is China.

The presidential plan failed to arrive Monday in Beijing as scheduled and later surfaced in Tehran,

Human rights groups were calling for Bashir's arrest during his four-day state visit. Speculation surfaced after he failed to arrive on time that he was afraid his flight would take him through the airspace of country's that could seek his arrest, the Telegraph adds.

The newspaper notes Washington appears to have sanctioned the visit to Beijing. A major international effort is behind restoring peace to Sudan ahead of a July independence for South Sudan.

South Sudan won the right to gain independence as part of a comprehensive peace agreement reached with Washington's help in 2005. Conflicts along the region dividing the north and south, disputes over oil and border demarcation threaten to unravel the peace deal.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/06/27/After-delay-Sudans-Bashir-heads-to-China/UPI-29371309195224/.