Foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa, AU commissioner Ping Jean and AU executive council chairperson Hawa Zainab Bangura during the refugee meeting at Munyonyo

By Cyprian Musoke
and Milton Olupot

SIX heads of state are expected to jet into the country today to attend a summit on refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons opening tomorrow at Speke Resort Munyonyo.

By press time yesterday, those whose arrival had been confirmed included presidents Iddris Deby of Chad, Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, Rupiah Banda of Zambia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed of Somalia and the leader of the Saharawi Arab democratic Republic, Mohammed Abdelaziz.

The Kampala Media Centre said the leaders would arrive in the afternoon.
South Africa will send the home affairs minister Dr. Dlamini Zuma, Kenya will be represented by foreign affairs minister Moses Wetangula, and Rwanda by prime minister Bernard Makuza, while Burundi will send by vice- president Dr. Yves Sahinguvu.

It was not yet clear whether Libyan leader and current chairman of the African Union Col. Muammar Gadaffi would attend the summit.

Sudan’s official news agency, SUNA, said president Omar el-Bashir, who had been invited, would not attend. Instead, the state minister at the interior ministry, Abbas Goma’a, and the refugee commissioner, Mohamed Ahmed Al-Agbash, will represent Sudan at the summit.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes he allegedly committed in the western Darfur region.

Yesterday, the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) demanded that countries that have not signed and ratified the African Charter on democracy, elections and governance do it urgently.

The council that has been deliberating on issues of refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons in Africa, adopted a 27-point declaration yesterday. The declaration will be tabled to the heads of state for ratification.

“We undertake to establish or strengthen high-level national mechanisms to address the problem of forced displacement in our respective countries, with particular focus on the root causes,” the declaration states.