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Rebel leader named vice president

Sudan turned over a new page in its history on Saturday with the swearing in of a former rebel leader as vice president under a power-sharing deal ending 21 years of civil war.

John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, took the oath as first vice president in the capital of Khartoum under the provisions of a peace agreement signed January in Kenya.

President Omar al-Bashir signed a transitional constitution before taking the oath as his country's leader. Ali Othman Taha, formerly al-Bashir's first deputy, was sworn in as second vice president.

Sudan is to form a new government within the next month. Under the power sharing arrangement the current government is to take 52 percent of Cabinet portfolios, the former rebel SPLM gets 28 percent, while the remaining 20 will go to other opposition groups.

Speaking at the Presidential Palace following the swearing in, Garang reiterated calls for his people to work for national unity.

He urged Sudanese to work together to ensure that "peace prevails throughout Sudan," saying that January's peace agreement would be inadequate as long as peace did not prevail in the western region of Darfur or in the country's east.

Garang, who became leader of the regional government for the south under January's accord, said he intended to work for the entire country, urging his compatriots to ensure that religion, ethnicity and politics do not stand in the way of Sudan's development.

He described the massive and jubilant turnout of Sudanese in the streets of the capital to welcome him yesterday as "a true referendum on the desire of the Sudanese for change and real democratization."

He also called for "a revolution against hunger" through working for the agricultural and industrial development of the country.

Al-Bashir likewise urged Sudanese to strive for national unity, saying that one of his most important tasks as president was to "implement the peace agreement and achieve voluntary unity in six years."

His comments referred to a provision of the peace agreement under which Sudanese are to go to the polls to indicate whether they want to divide the country or maintain its current of responsible freedom that will not be constrained by exceptional laws.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, one of several foreign dignitaries at the ceremony, said it was "a day of great hope for the Sudanese people, who have suffered so long."

However, he also sounded a cautionary note, warning that "unity is as yet incomplete and precarious, but it is immensely precious."

He urged the new government to make solving the problems in Darfur and east Sudan its top priority. "The peace process between north and south must be made irreversible, which it not be unless it takes root in the east and in the west as well," he said.

On the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Annan said that although it has been partially addressed, efforts must continue to ensure a comprehensive solution capable of ending the suffering and conflict.
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