From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Jan 12 2010 - 12:08:16 EST
Sudan's Bashir retires as army chief before vote
Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:01pm GMT
* Bashir retires as army chief
* Move seen as procedural ahead of elections
(Adds opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, security adviser)
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir
retired as commander-in-chief of the army, state media said on Monday, in
what sources said was a procedural move before the first multi-party
elections in 24 years.
"President Omar Hassan al-Bashir today issued a decree retiring (himself as)
the commander-in-chief of the armed forces," state news agency SUNA said. It
mentioned no replacement.
Official nominations for the April elections will begin on Tuesday and
analysts have said Bashir was trying to distance himself from his military
past before his nomination by the dominant National Congress Party (NCP).
"This decree and the timing of it can be read in the context of his
nomination expected tomorrow for the presidential elections," one source in
the presidency told Reuters.
Another added: "This is only because of the elections -- it is just a
procedure."
Elections to parliament and state governorships will be held at the same
time as the presidential vote.
The deputy head of Sudan's elections commission said there was no
requirement in the election law for Bashir to resign his military post.
Opposition Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi belittled the move: "He has
already pretty much delegated this job to his defence minister," he told
Reuters.
"His people close to him are very much so loyal and so close to him... that
he will just appoint one of them as the chief and it won't matter much,"
added Turabi, who split from Bashir's party in 1999/2000.
RISK OF VIOLENCE
The elections precede a referendum in southern Sudan on Jan. 9, 2011 on
whether to secede from the north. Many Sudanese question whether it is worth
holding an expensive election just nine months before the referendum.
Sudan's two-decade north-south civil war, fought over religion, ethnicity,
ideology and oil, claimed 2 million lives and drove 4 million from their
homes.
Major delays in implementing a 2005 north-south peace deal have created
distrust, and most analysts agree the south is likely to vote to separate.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Bashir
last year for war crimes in Sudan's western region of Darfur.
The NCP, who reject any cooperation with the ICC, is desperate to win the
presidential vote to legitimise Bashir and his government.
After a mass publicity campaign portraying the ICC arrest warrant as a
Western conspiracy to destabilise Sudan, Bashir is expected to be the
front-runner in the elections.
Opposition parties have accused the NCP of buying votes, intimidation and
widespread fraud in the voter registration process which ended last month,
which the party denies.
Bashir's security adviser Salah Gosh warned of a risk of organised violence
in the elections, especially in the oil-producing Abyei and South Kordofan
regions, according to SUNA on Monday.
"We may see some violence trying to derail the electoral process...and that
will likely be organised violence," he said.
He warned the tense South Kordofan and Abyei states could be hard hit. They
saw heavy fighting during the civil war and have also endured clashes since
the 2005 peace deal.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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