Sudan’s Bashir pledges to cooperate with Kiir on peace deal

KHARTOUM, Aug 11, 2005 (Xinhua) — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir here Thursday pledged to cooperate with newly sworn-in First Vice President and southern Sudan’s president Salva Kiir to implement the peace deal signed by Kiir’s predecessor John Garang and Khartoum.

Southern Sudanese leader Salva Kiir Mayardit, left, shakes hands with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, right, as the Sudanese Chief Justice, second right, looks on after he was sworn in as Sudan’s first vice president in Khartoum, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005. (AP).

In his address at Kiir’s sworn-in ceremony, Bashir described the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) as “an original partner in the peace agreement to ensure national unity and to realize progress and honest cooperation in Sudan.”

Bashir said that he will work together with Kiir and the SPLM to close the curtain of the past and go ahead on the course of creating co-existence, harmony and building trust to consolidate the social fabric through maintaining tolerance and brotherhood among the Sudanese people.

“We will continue, along with Kiir, the stage we started with Garang to establish a good governance that will abide by the interim constitution and will involve a responsible freedom and sustainable democracy and consultation,” said Bashir.

Garang, the former SPLM leader for more than two decades, died in a helicopter crash in southern Sudan on his way back from Uganda on July 30.

The Sudanese government and the SPLM reached a comprehensive peace deal in January, ending 21 years of civil war between the north and the south which killed more than 2 million people in the country.

Bashir also expressed his commitment to solving the Darfur conflict in western Sudan and reaching a satisfactory settlement to the conflict in eastern Sudan with opposition parties.

The president said he was determined to make comprehensive social and economic development available to all regions in Sudan for the Sudanese people to equally enjoy the country’s interests.