Turkey: suffering in Sudan must be halted

20/08/2008

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Human rights must be respected and the "blood and tears" in Darfur must stop, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Tuesday (August 19th) in a meeting with visiting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Their talks took place on the sidelines of a Turkey-Africa co-operation summit in Istanbul. Al-Bashir, on his first visit abroad since a July indictment by the International Criminal Court, denied the war crimes charges against him. He said his forces were not responsible for the Darfur catastrophe and accused the court of acting as part of a "neo-colonialist" conspiracy. (Sabah - 20/08/08; Reuters, Turkish Daily News, Zaman - 19/08/08)