Sudan former rebel leader becomes first vice president

KHARTOUM, July 9 (AFP) — Former rebel leader John Garang was sworn in as Sudan’s first vice president Saturday as a new power-sharing constitution came into force in a bid to put a final seal on two decades of civil war.

Sudanese President Omer el Bashir right holds handswith leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army at the headquarters of the ruling national congress party in Khartoum, Sudan, Friday, July 8, 2005. (AP).

Garang will also head an autonomous administration due to run the mainly Christian and animist south for a six-year interim period leading up to a promised referendum on independence.

“I John Garang Demabior swear by almighty God that as the first vice president of the Republic of the Sudan, I shall be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Republic of the Sudan,” he pledged at an inauguration ceremony attended by a host of foreign dignitaries.

Garang said he would “foster welfare and development of the nation” and “obey, preserve and defend the constitution … and protect the sovereignty of the country, promote its unity, (and) consolidate the decentralized system of government.”

Garang’s inauguration came after President Omar al-Beshir formally promulgated the new consititution, bringing to an end the state of emergency in force on and off since he seized power in a 1989 coup and banned all political parties.

UN chief Kofi Annan hailed “a day of great hope for the Sudanese people, who have suffered so long.”

The civil war, which was Africa’s longest-running, left an estimated two million people dead and more than four million displaced.

But Annan warned that many challenges remained ahead if the new government was really to be one of national unity.

“That unity is as yet incomplete and precarious, but it is immensely precious,” he said.

“During the six-year interim period that lies ahead, all of you — the Sudanese — and all of us — your friends in the international community — must work together to preserve and nourish this tender plant so that it grows into a sturdy tree of peace, prosperity and freedom for all the people of Sudan.”

The UN chief expressed particular concern about the potentially destablising effects of continued ethnic minority uprisings in the western Darfur region, and Kassala and Red Sea states in the east.

“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.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and several regional heads of state also attended the inauguration.

The authorities imposed tight security across the capital for the ceremony, declaring a public holiday and ordering motorists to stay away from the city centre.

Organizers said as many as a million people had turned out for a mass rally in Garang’s honour Friday evening to welcome him to Khartoum on his first visit since the 1983 launch of the civil war.

Cheering supporters climbed trees or stood on the top of vehicles to try to catch a glimpse of the former rebel leader.

Photographs of Garang, which the regime had outlawed through the long years of civil war, were put up on buildings around the capital with its full blessing.

Before the rally, the former rebel leader had held brief talks with Beshir.

“It is a day of real peace,” the president said after the meeting.

Garang congratulated the Sudanese people and said: “It’s not my peace or the peace of Omar al-Beshir, but it is peace for all Sudanese people.

The two then shook hands and promised to work together for a better Sudan.