Arab leaders unite behind Sudan's President Bashir

Arab leaders may be divided over which Palestinian faction to support and what to do about Iran's rising influence, but they have found one cause to rally around: protecting the president of Sudan from charges that he orchestrated the rape, killing and widespread pillaging in Darfur. Arab leaders gathered for their annual summit meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, hoping to patch over their many differences. But they had little trouble agreeing to an effusive embrace of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court this month for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court also issued a warrant for his arrest. The emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, greeted Mr. Bashir at the airport with a red carpet treatment, a warm embrace and a kiss on the cheek. Even before the meeting began, Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, said the member states would "continue our efforts to halt the implementation of the warrant." Arab leaders have closed ranks around a fellow head of state in the face of pressure from the West and condemnation from human rights groups around the world. They have argued that the International Criminal Court compromised Sudan's sovereignty. Their supporters said the court's action revealed the West's double standard in dealing with Arabs by indicting Mr. Bashir while taking no action against what they saw as war crimes committed by Israel during its offensive in Gaza. They added that the indictment undermined efforts at bringing about a negotiated settlement by inflaming the situation. "The leaders reject attempts to politicize the principles of international justice and using them to undermine the sovereignty, unity and stability of Sudan," read a resolution drafted by foreign ministers before the meeting. The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, opened the summit meeting with a speech calling for Arab leaders to reject the court's action. "What is happening now with regards to Sudan is a new chapter in the chapters that consider the Arabs weak and disrespect the sovereignty of their countries," he said. "As for their weak pretexts about fabricated crimes committed by Sudan, we can discuss it with them after they bring those who committed the atrocities and massacres in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq to the court implicated for the same crimes, but ones that are not fabricated, but rather proven with documents and incidents," Mr. Assad added. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who also attended the conference, sharply criticized Mr. Bashir for expelling aid agencies in response to the court's call for his arrest. "Relief efforts should not become politicized," he said. "People in need must be helped, irrespective of political differences." There was also some criticism of the Arab League's decision to welcome Mr. Bashir. Some critics said their leaders had embarrassed the Arab world and were supporting Mr. Bashir not on the strength of their convictions but from a sense of self-preservation. "The leaders' position is their own self-defense, because they don't want to open the door to an international tribunal of any kind that will open the file of any crimes they committed against humanity or against their own people," said Saad al-Ajmi, a former Kuwaiti minister of information. "Most of those regimes are actually dictatorships, and most of them have their hands smeared with the blood of their own people." An independent group called the Doha Center for Media Freedom condemned Mr. Bashir's participation in the summit meeting and said that it was hypocritical for Arabs to want Israel to be investigated for its actions in Gaza and then "complain about it if a friendly country is involved." When the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Mr. Bashir's arrest, it charged that he played an "essential role" in the murder, rape, torture, pillage and displacement of large numbers of civilians in Darfur. The only Arab states to participate in the court are Jordan, Djibouti and the Comoros. The United States has also rejected participating in the court. The court's action against Mr. Bashir came at a time of heightened tension among Arab states over how to respond to Israel's offensive in Gaza and to relations with Iran. The defense of Mr. Bashir drew a rare consensus, even among those hostile to each other, like President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Qatar's emir. Mr. Mubarak did not attend the summit meeting in Qatar, but he instead invited Mr. Bashir to visit Cairo before the conference. The Arab consensus on Mr. Bashir has partly been attributed to a feeling of resentment in a region that is still sensitive to what it views as Western colonial arrogance. "It is as if the court and those who support it think they have the power to appoint and fire presidents," said Faisal Mekdad, the Syrian vice minister of foreign affairs, during a conversation on the side of the summit meeting in Doha, Qatar's capital. Syria may have an additional motive for denouncing the arrest warrant, because its leadership is said to be concerned that the international investigation into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister may implicate or even indict high-ranking Syrian figures. Whatever the motives, the pro-Bashir stance is likely to play well with the Arab public, said Sarkis Naoum, a columnist for the Lebanese newspaper Al Nahar. "Arabs are happy to see their leaders facing up the Security Council or other international bodies," Mr. Naoum said. "And this has become a tool for regimes to try to gain more legitimacy." That certainly appeared to be the case for Mr. Bashir, who sat alongside other Arab leaders and delivered a rambling diatribe against the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Security Council.