From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu May 27 2010 - 09:33:21 EDT
* http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/05/27/sudan.inauguration/?hpt=T1
Sudanese
president starts new term amid boycott calls
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 27, 2010 -- Updated 0736 GMT (1536 HKT)
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*(CNN)* -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will be sworn in for a new term
Thursday amid an outcry from human rights groups over his international
war-crimes indictment.
Al-Bashir won the country's controversial but historic presidential election
with roughly two-thirds of the vote, the nation's election commission said.
The elections were the first in 24 years in the oil-rich African nation,
which has seen deadly violence in Darfur and a civil war between north and
south.
International observers, including the United States, criticized the
elections and said there were irregularities in many parts of the country.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said intimidation and threats were
reported in south Sudan. The ongoing conflict in Darfur also made it
unfavorable for voting, he said.
International human rights groups have called for a boycott of the
inauguration.
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for
al-Bashir over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the region, one of the
world's most desolate, as minority rebels battle the Arab-dominated
government.
The incumbent president has defied the arrest warrant, the first ever issued
by the ICC for a sitting head of state.
Al-Bashir has traveled to several countries since the warrant was issued,
even though any country that is party to the ICC has an obligation to hand
him over to The Hague.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said governments committed to justice for
Darfur should skip the inauguration. The group decried plans by the United
Nations to send a representative to the ceremony.
"U.N. guidelines limit U.N. interaction with individuals indicted by
international criminal courts such as President al-Bashir to what is
strictly required for carrying out UN mandated activities," Human Rights
Watch said in a letter to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon. "Attendance at the
inauguration cannot be justified as strictly required."
The election was a key part of a 2005 peace deal that helped end decades of
civil war between the country's north and south -- a different conflict from
the one in Darfur.
The south-north conflict pitted Christian and animist southerners against
Muslim northerners, leaving more than 2 million people dead. The peace deal
also called for a referendum next year to determine whether the south should
become an independent nation.
Salva Kiir was elected president of southern Sudan, a semi-autonomous region
scheduled to vote next year on whether to become independent.
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