Omar al-Bashir

Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir عمر حسن أحمد البشير
File:Omar al-Bashir.jpg
President of Sudan
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 June 1989
Vice President	Salva Kiir Mayar
Preceded by	Ahmad al-Mirghani
Personal details
Born	(1944-01-01) 1 January 1944 Hosh Bannaga, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Political party	NyP
Spouse	Fatma Khaldid

Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir (Arabic: عمر حسن أحمد البشير, born January 1 1944) is the President of Sudan.

Background

President Al-Bashir was born in the village of Hoshe Bannaga in Sudan (united with Egypt at the time), where he received his primary education. His family later moved to Khartoum, where he completed his secondary education. Al-Bashir joined the Sudanese Army at a young age and studied at the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo. He quickly rose through the ranks and became a paratrooper. Later, al-Bashir served with the Egyptian Army during the October War of 1973. He is a native speaker of the Arabic language

Al-Bashir is married to his cousin Fatma Khaldid. He also has a second wife named Widad, who had a number of children with her first husband who died in a helicopter crash. Al-Bashir does not have any children of his own.

Military career

When he returned to the Sudan, Al-Bashir was put in charge of military operations against the Sudan People's Liberation Army in the southern half of the country. Then a colonel, in 1989 Al-Bashir led a group of army officers in ousting the unstable coalition government of Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi. Under Al-Bashir's leadership, the new military government suspended political parties and introduced an Islamic legal code on the national level. He then became Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation (a newly established body with legislative and executive powers for what was described as a transitional period), and assumed the posts of chief of state, prime minister, chief of the armed forces, and minister of defense.

Governance

Subsequent to Al-Bashir's promotion to the Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, he allied himself with Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the National Islamic Front.

On October 16, 1993, Al-Bashir's powers increased when he was appointed president of the country, after which time the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation was dissolved. The executive and legislative powers of the council were later given to Al-Bashir. He was later elected president (with a five year term) in the 1996 national election. In 1998, Al-Bashir and the Presidential Committee put into effect a new constitution. In 1999, Al-Bashir and the Parliament made a law which allowed limited political associations in opposition to Al-Bashir and his supporters to be formed, although these groups failed to gain any significant access to governmental power. On December 12, 1999, Al-Bashir sent troops and tanks against parliament and ousted Hassan al-Turabi, the speaker of parliament, in a palace coup.

Civil war

Main article: Second Sudanese Civil War

Sudan has experienced a civil war that raged between the northern and southern halves of the country for over 19 years. The war resulted in millions of southerners being displaced, starved, and deprived of education and health care. Because of these actions, various international sanctions were placed on Sudan. International pressure intensified in 2001, however, and leaders from the United Nations called for Al-Bashir to make efforts to end the conflict and allow humanitarian and international workers to deliver relief to the southern regions of Sudan. Much progress was made throughout 2003, and in early 2004 Al-Bashir agreed to grant autonomy to the south for six years, split the country’s oil revenues with the southern provinces, and allow the southerners to vote in a referendum of independence at the end of the six year period.

Accusations of international crimes

Main article: Darfur conflict

As the conflict in the south of Sudan began to subside, a new conflict started in the western province of Darfur in early 2003.

The United States Government claimed in September 2004 "that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and that genocide may still be occurring." Al-Bashir declared that the government had quashed the rebellion in February 2004, but rebels still operate within the region and the death toll continues to rise. On June 29, 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Al-Bashir in Sudan and urged him to make peace with the rebels, end the crisis, and lift restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Darfur. Kofi Annan met with Al-Bashir three days later and demanded that he disarm the Janjaweed.

In September 2006, Al-Bashir attended the UN General Assembly in New York and asserted that Sudan wants the African Union to stay in Darfur until peace is re-established. Shortly afterwards the AU peace and United Nations Security Council announced that its 7,000 troops would remain until December 31 2006.

A high-level technical consultation was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 11–12 June 2007, pursuant to the 4 June 2007 letters of the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, which were addressed to President Omar Al-Bashir. The technical consultations were attended by delegations from the Government of Sudan, the African Union and the United Nations.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, formally filed an arrest warrant request for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on July 14, 2008. The charges revolved around genocide and crimes against humanity committed since 2003 in Darfur. The prosecutor filed 10 charges accusing Al-Bashir of having “masterminded and implemented” a plan to destroy the three main ethnic groups, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation. The evidence was submitted to three judges who will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant, and the answer is expected in the Fall. About 300,000 people have died and 5 million people were forced from their homes, and still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia. If formally charged, al-Bashir would become, after (the now deceased)Slobodan Milošević, the second sitting head of state charged with genocide. Bashir has rejected the charges and said, "Whoever has visited Darfur, met officials and discovered their ethnicities and tribes ... will know that all of these things are lies."

See also

• Command responsibility
• List of national leaders
• History of Sudan
• Darfur conflict
• Military of Sudan
• Politics of Sudan
• Genocide
• Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-IV), 2008.

External links

• "Sudanese President Threaten Wars," Sudan Inside, November 18, 2007.
• "A Cautious Welcome for Sudan's New Government," by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #245, July 28, 1989.

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