Republic of Sudan
Country Facts
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Country Leadership
President: Omar Bashir Omar Hassan al-Bashir came to power in a military coup in 1989 and has ruled with an iron fist ever since. Omar al-Bashir is wanted on genocide and war crimes chargesHe heads a government of national unity that includes leaders of southern Sudan, which has limited autonomy and which opted for full independence in a referendum in January 2011. The formation of the unity government in 2005 and the referendum were part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the conflict in southern Sudan, Africa's longest-running civil war. Mr Bashir faces two international arrest warrants - issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague - on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges relate to the conflict in the western Darfur, where thousands of people died of violence, disease and displacement during the fighting between government and rebel forces. He has dismissed the allegations and has continued to travel to countries which oppose the indictment. When he took power in the 1989 military coup against the elected government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi he dissolved parliament, banned political parties and set up and chaired the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, which ruled through a civilian government. He formed an alliance with Hassan al-Turabi, the leader of the National lslamic Front, who became the regime's ideologue and is thought to be behind the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the north in 1991. In 1993 Mr Bashir dissolved the Revolutionary Command for National Salvation, concentrating power in his own hands. Mr Bashir was elected president in 1996. A new constitution was drawn up and some opposition activity was permitted. But in late 1999 Mr Bashir dissolved parliament and declared a state of emergency after Mr Turabi tried to give parliament the power to remove the president and to reinstate the post of prime minister. President Bashir won re-election in 2000. Supporters of the National Congress Party filled the parliament. The opposition boycotted the poll, accusing Mr Bashir of vote-rigging. In April 2010 he won Sudan's first multi-party elections in 24 years. International observers criticised the election as falling short of international standards. Many opposition parties withdrew from the race, alleging widespread vote rigging and intimidation. First vice-president: Salva Kiir Salva Kiir Mayardit succeeded former rebel leader John Garang as first vice-president on the death of the latter in a helicopter crash in 2005. Salva Kiir - Sudan's first vice president and leader of SPLMHe had been appointed vice-president of southern Sudan under the 2005 peace agreement as Mr Garang's deputy in the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). A rebel since the late 1960s, Mr Kiir joined the Sudanese army after the 1972 peace agreement. He defected to the rebels on the resumption of fighting in 1983 and emerged as the military leader of the SPLM. Like Mr Garang he is a Dinka, the largest ethnic group in the south. Unlike Mr Garang, Salva Kiir has consistently favoured full southern independence. He remains very popular in the south, in particular among SPLM military veterans. He was re-elected in multiparty polls which were held in the south in April 2010, at the same times as the elections in the north in which President Bashir was re-elected. He is favourite to become the first president of an independent south. Vice-president: Ali Osman Taha A former first vice-president and foreign minister, Ali Osman Taha was the chief government negotiator in the deal that ended the north-south civil war in 2005. He stepped down to allow John Garang, and then Salva Kiir, to take up the first vice-presidency, and has served as second vice-president ever since. A member of President Omar Bashir's National Congress Party, he is seen as a loyalist who has undertaken extensive diplomatic missions to depend the government's actions in Darfur and to lobby against the international arrest warrant against the president. |
Omar al-Bashir is wanted on genocide and war crimes charges
Salva Kiir - Sudan's first vice president and leader of SPLM
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The Embassy of the Republic of Sudan in Washington, D.C.
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