Sudanese president optimistic new govt will bring stability

KHARTOUM, Sudan, July 7, 2005 (AP) — President Omar el-Bashir was optimistic that this weekend’s formation of a national unity government would bring stability to Sudan and help improve relations with the United States, according to comments published Thursday.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir gestures during his speech in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005, where he pledged to bring peace to the war-torn Darfur region. (AP).

The president’s interview with the Sudan Media Center was published a day before former rebel leader John Garang returns to the capital – for the first time since the 1983 start of the southern civil war – to be sworn in as first vice president, according to the terms of a peace deal signed in January.

“Peace has been a strategic objective of this government,” el-Bashir said. “In addition to this, the formation of a new government would bring tremendous stability to the country on the internal front, and on the external front it would help us achieve huge overture.”

The president said the completion of the peace deal had already helped improve relations with the United States but that he was interested in more normalization.

“Our relationship with the United States of America has moved from a degree of full enmity that reached the point of hitting us with cruise missiles, to the state of dealing with us and having a common understanding. And now, after the conclusion of the peace agreement in which the United States played a role, we seek to normalize relations after we felt they have desire for the same,” the president was quoted as saying.

“This would lead to lifting the name of Sudan from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism and would thus end the economic boycott and raise the diplomatic representation between the two countries,” el-Bashir said.

The United States considers Sudan a state sponsor of terrorism and has had sanctions against it since 1989 when el-Bashir seized power in a coup. In 1998, the United States bombed a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum on the suspicion that it produced chemical weapons ingredients. None were found.

On Wednesday, an interim constitution was passed by the Sudanese National Assembly in Khartoum and the legislature of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Rumbeik, in southern Sudan. Among other things, the constitution paved the way for SPLA leader Garang to become first vice president, a post with wide executive and political powers. It will be the first time a Christian has held such a high position in Sudan’s largely Islamic government.

The constitution provides for a coalition government, wealth and power sharing and democratic elections within three years. The south will also have a referendum on secession after six years.

El-Bashir acknowledged the possibility that the south might separate but said he strongly believed they could decide to stay part of Sudan.

“The two possibilities are there. But I tilt for unity because most of the tribes in the south are for unity,” he said. “Talking about separation is more when you are under the bitterness of war. … There is no doubt that by maintaining the sound application of the comprehensive peace agreement, the option of unity would prevail.”