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Omar al-Bashir

Omar al-Bashir16 posts
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1 Jan, 1944

Omar al-Bashir born

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Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir is born to a farming family, and receives his primary education in Hoshe Bannaga, Sudan. He belongs to Al-Bedairyya Al-Dahmashyya, a Bedouin tribe belonging to the larger ja’alin coalition. He completes his secondary education in Khartoum.

30 Jun, 1989

Stages coup

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Bashir leads fellow officers in a mutiny against Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. The coup is also aimed at preventing the signing of a peace treaty with John Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Bashir opposed the plan, which would have allowed secular law, instead of Sharia, in the south. He says in a televised communique that the coup is:

to save the country from rotten political parties.

He claims himself chairman of Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) and signs a constitutional decree dismissing the government and other state bodies. Further decrees dissolve political parties and trade unions, and impose a state of emergency and a ban on demonstrations against the “revolution of national salvation”

16 Oct, 1993

Appointed president

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Sudan announces return to civil rule and appoints Bashir as president. Before disbanding, the Council issues a decree specifying that Islamic law will be the basis of Sudan’s political system, but guaranteeing freedom of religion. The Council’s deputy leader says the move is necessary “to put a framework for the government.”

Mar 1996

Wins election

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Elections are held for a president and a new National Assembly from March 2-28, the first since the coup. 125 members of the 400-seat National Assembly are nominated before the election, leaving 275 seats to be elected (of which 51 were ultimately uncontested). There are  no political parties — all candidates ran as independents. Leaders of the Sudan’s main opposition parties, disbanded when Bashir took power, boycott elections. Ousted Prime Minister Mahdi, calls the elections a cheap attempt by the Government to buy legitimacy.

Bashir is elected president with 75.7% of votes.  He will serve a five-year term, after which he will be allowed to run once more. He tells the crowd:

We have fully returned power in full to the people.

The New York Times reports the  power behind Bashir’s government is widely believed to be the militant Muslim cleric Turabi, who is elected to a seat in Parliament in Khartoum.

1998

National Congress Party formed

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Bashir and Turabi form the National Congress Party, the only legally recognized political party in Sudan. The party has the same Islamist ideology as its predecessors National Islamic Front (NIF) and the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, which Bashir headed as Chairman until 1993. Turabi is appointed Secretary General.

13 Dec, 1999

Dissolves parliament

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After friction with Turabi over a bill he introduced to reduce the president’s powers, Bashir relieves him of the position of Secretary General, dissolves parliament and declares a three-month state of emergency, “to preserve the unity of the country and its coherence.” Bashir:

There are dangers against the country from abroad and internal problems that will aggravate the country’s problems that will not be allowed

Turabi:

We have heard of the revolution that eats its children, but not of the revolution that eats its father

4 Mar, 2009

ICC charges with war crimes

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The ICC upholds the request of the chief prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo, to charge Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Moreno-Campo claimed 35,000 violent deaths were caused by Bashir’s government arming, training, and financing bands of Arab nomads to attack villages across Darfur, killing, raping and looting as they went. The army provided air and ground support. He also alleged Bashir committed genocide by trying to eliminate the Fur, Marsalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, whom Bashir deemed supportive of the rebels. Moreno-Campo:

More than 30 witnesses will [testify] how he [Bashir] managed to control everything, and we have strong evidence of his intention.

While the judges dismiss the genocide charge, they indict Bashir on five counts of crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. The two counts of war crimes are for directing attacks on the civilian population and pillaging. Bashir is the first national leader to be charged by the court. All states would be asked to execute the arrest warrant and if Sudan fails to cooperate the matter will be referred to the UN security council.

Sudan does not recognise the ICC, and Bashir says the court can “eat” the arrest warrant, which he describes as a western plot to hinder Sudan’s development. A Bashir aide describes the charges as:

neo-colonialism … They do not want Sudan to become stable.

26 Apr, 2010

Wins election

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In the first elections — for president, parliament and other local positions — in 24 years, Bashir wins with 68.24 percent of the vote, just under seven million votes. The voting is scrutinized by about 750 international and 18,000 domestic observers.

14 Jun, 2015

Returns to Sudan despite court order

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South African media reports the Sudanese president’s aircraft is seen taking of, despite a court order barring his departure from the country. Sudan’s minister of information later say that Bashir was aboard the plane and was expected back in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, on Monday evening. Shortly before Bashir’s departure the High Court in Pretoria had demanded to know from government Advocate William Mokhari whether the government had complied with its order yesterday that Bashir not leave the country. Mokhari informs the court that there was no risk that Bashir would leave the country.

My instruction is that President Bashir has been invited to attend an AU summit which finishes today this evening so that if indeed President Bashir has come to attend the AU summit, I saw no risk whatsoever of President Bashir disappearing before he executes the business of his government which he has come here for.

27 Jul, 2015

African leaders demand end to sanctions

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African leaders issue a joint statement from a conference in Mauritania calling for the lifting of sanctions against Sudan. Bashir is among 11 leaders or government representatives at the meeting in Nouakchott of countries grouped by the “Great Green Wall” ecological initiative. The leaders do not specify which sanctions they want lifted.

For the sake of solidarity between the peoples of the member countries, the heads of state and government express their support for our sister republic of Sudan and call for the lifting of sanctions imposed on that country.

4 Aug, 2015

Zuma impeachment motion notice

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The Democratic Alliance gives the National Assembly notice of a motion to be debated on August 18 for the impeachment against President Zuma.  DA leader Maimane:

The events that led to the escape of Bashir represent a clear violation of the president’s oath to ‘obey, observe, uphold and maintain the Constitution and all other law of the Republic’ and serve as nothing less than grounds for his removal from office in terms of section 89[1][a] of the Constitution. In blatant disregard of their legal obligations, however, Cabinet granted Bashir immunity while attending the summit of the African Union [AU] in June, and subsequently allowed him to escape the country. President Zuma, as the head of the Cabinet, bears ultimate responsibility for this decision.

The ANC says the proposed motion is a publicity stunt by the DA:

Section 89 of the Constitution states amongst others that the president may only be removed from office for a serious violation of the Constitution or the law. No court of law has ever found the president guilty of violation of the law or the Constitution. In the absence of any constitutional or legal basis, Mmusi Maimane’s motion amounts to political posturing and is not worth the paper it is written on. As we have repeatedly stated, all heads of states and delegates that attended the African Union summit in Sandton were granted diplomatic immunity by the government in line with international standards and practices related to events such as the one held recently in our country.

6 Aug, 2015

Defends failure to arrest

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After Maimane, head of the Democratic Alliance, calls Bashir ‘a man wanted … for genocide against Africans,” and asks Zuma why he had not kept previous promises to enforce the warrant – as all ICC members are bound to do, Zuma tells paparliament Bashir would have been detained if he had visited South Africa as an individual, rather than as a delegate to an AU summit.

Bashir’s coming to South Africa, it was on the invitation of the AU (African Union). He is the guest of the AU.

Zuma receives support from one of his critics, EFF leader Malema, who tells parliament:

We are not going to agree for the arrest of an African leader in South Africa to polarise Africa and make South Africa an enemy of the whole of Africa.

9 Aug, 2015

Invited to regional president’s meeting

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Bashir will join a group of regional leaders, including Ugandan president Museveni, Kenya’s president Kenyetta, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Desalegnin, in Uganda for talks on South Sudan conflict. Ministry of Foreign Affairs official:

[Bashir] has been invited for heads of state meeting on regional issues at State House, Entebbe. We expect him to join them on Monday to discuss the crisis in South Sudan and how to end it.

Bashir’s visit to the East African country will not cause a diplomatic incident because of International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for his alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Official:

The African Union (AU) has a different position (not cooperating) on ICC. We respect and abide by it. We have no obligation to arrest him.

14 Oct, 2015

Mohamed, Bashir meet

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Mohamed meets with Sudanese President Bashir in Khartoum. The teenager tells reporters that he was “extremely delighted” to meet Bashir and hopes to return to visit the Sudanese president again “with a new invention and success.” Ahmed’s father, who has campaigned against Bashir in two presidential elections:

[I hope talented young people] will write a new [chapter in] history for an advanced and developed Sudan.