News Article by AP posted on July 09, 2005 at 16:27:50: EST (-5 GMT)
Former foes Garang, el-Bashir take Sudan's top two posts, sign new
constitution
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Two former enemies joined forces Saturday to sign into being Sudan's new constitution, claim the African country's two highest posts and pledge to promote peace and renewal in a nation scarred by two decades of civil war.
Ex-rebel leader John Garang, who was feted in a massive public reception a day earlier after returning to Khartoum for the first time in 22 years, was sworn in as Sudan's first southern and Christian vice president.
Garang's longtime foe Omar el-Bashir, who came to power in a 1989 coup, was again handed the presidency under the terms of a U.S.-backed interim constitution, which provides for wealth and power sharing, democratic elections within three years, and for southern Sudan to have a referendum on secession after six years.
The new charter also widens political and religious freedoms and ends a state of emergency in place for most of the years el-Bashir has ruled. The two leaders are expected to form their coalition government by Aug. 9.
"From here on, Sudan for the first time will be a country voluntarily united in justice and the free will of its people," Garang, 60, told regional heads of state, local leaders and foreign dignitaries including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert Zoellick.
The former Sudan People's Liberation Army chief also said Sudan will be "a country where there is full respect for human rights, freedom and dignity for all people regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of their agenda."
Southern rebels, comprising mainly Christians and Sudanese of animist beliefs, had fought the Islamic-oriented government's forces since 1983. The conflict killed more than 2 million people, mainly through war-induced famine.
The civil war also ravaged infrastructure in oil-rich southern Sudan, a vast region that saw little or no development during the war. Annan said during an April donor's conference in Norway that Sudan needed US$2.6 billion (euro2.1 billion) over the next 21/2 years to help rebuild the south.
El-Bashir and Garang reached out to peace deal opponents, urging them to back efforts to rebuild the south Sudan and resolve ongoing conflicts in the western Darfur region and eastern Sudan.
"We call on them to join in so that we could move on in our rehabilitation and building our homeland," el-Bashir said. "Otherwise, we would welcome an original, national opposition that would hold the national interests high."
Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, who as vice president was one of the major brokers of the peace accord that paved the way for Saturday's ceremonies, was sworn in as vice president. Though Garang will be second to the president and have veto power, Taha will still play a powerful role as the second-highest ruling party official after el-Bashir.
The constitution moves away from complete Islamic rule, saying those in the mainly Christian and animist south will not be held to Muslim laws. It also removes a requirement that the president be Muslim.
Annan called it "a day of great hope for the Sudanese people, who have suffered so long."
But the U.N. chief warned that the unity symbolized by the new government was incomplete and precarious with instability continuing in Darfur and eastern Sudan, the scene of recent anti-government uprisings.
The political changes were widely approved by war-weary Sudanese.
"Everyone in Sudan is happy," said human rights activist Ghazi Suleiman. "Now Sudan is on a new path, the way of diversity, the way of religious freedom. We have to go forward. There is no other way."
Bashir Adam Rahman, secretary for political affairs in the opposition Popular Congress Party, said despite some reservations with the new constitution, his movement was mostly pleased with this weekend's events.
"It ends the war, it answers questions about the relationship between different groups," he said. "With the constitution, everything is settled."
But his party and others were unhappy with the interim constitution's allocation of power, which gives el-Bashir's ruling National Congress Party 52 percent of government and parliament seats. Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement will have 28 percent, with northern and southern opposition parties taking the remaining 20 percent.
Still, Rahman approved of Garang's veto, saying it was "a security valve for
the implementation of the peace agreement and constitution."