Mbeki, mediator for Sudan crisis

Safrica: Former South African President Thabo Mbeki was appointed by the African Union as mediator between the Sudanese government and the International Criminal Court, which ruled the arrest of President Omar Hassan al Bashir.

The ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant against al Bashir is regrettable, said South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who added that her country welcomed the AU initiative.

South Africa supported the AU request to postpone the detention warrant for a year as an opportunity for peace processes in Sudan to develop, said Dlamini Zuma. Mbeki was the mediator in negotiations to form a national unity government in Zimbabwe between the African National Union led by President Robert Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai, leading to an agreement in Harare after five months of meetings between the parties and international brokers.

Johannesburg, Prensa Latina