Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) / Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) accuses the government of Sudan of systematically refusing to cooperate in any way with the efforts of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to combat impunity in Darfur. The human rights organisation has forcefully condemned the decision to prevent a leading Darfuri human rights activist and two prominent political opponents of the Sudanese regime attending the ICC Review Conference opening in Kampala (Uganda) today, Monday 31 May. "By withholding travel visas President Omar Hassan al Bashir has demonstrated his determination to maintain, at whatever cost, the false impression that all Sudanese are opposed to the ICC warrant for his arrest", STP/GfbV Africa specialist Ulrich Delius argues. "Nevertheless Bashir faces opposition even at home over his role in the atrocities perpetrated in Darfur." Even members of Bashir's own ruling party have suggested that he might withdraw from politics because of the damage his actions have caused to Sudan's reputation.

"Only a few days since the newly re-elected President took office it is clear that with Bashir in power there is no prospect of an end to arbitrary rule in Sudan", Delius observes. Last Saturday (29 May) the Sudanese authorities prevented Darfuri human rights lawyer and parliamentarian Salih Mahmoud Osman from travelling to Kampala. Osman has worked as a lawyer for the Sudanese Organisation against Torture for a number of years and has repeatedly called for the individuals responsible for the genocide in Darfur to be brought to justice. In 2007 he was awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize.

Along with Osman leading opposition politician Mariam al Mahdi has also been stopped from travelling to Uganda. The daughter of former Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi, violently deposed by Bashir, is considered the most important representative of the opposition Umma Party. The lawyer and parliamentarian Al Bukhari Aljaali from the prominent opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has also been refused permission to leave Sudan.

At the Kampala conference, due to continue until 11 June 2010, representatives of the 111 signatory states of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC will review proposals for the International Court's ongoing work.