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.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS