Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir (Arabic: عمر حسن أحمد البشير‎; born 1 January 1944) is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.[1]

In October 2004, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, one of the longest-running and deadliest wars of the 20th century, by granting limited autonomy to Southern Sudan dominated by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Since then, however, there has been a violent conflict in Darfur that has resulted in death tolls between 200,000[2] and 400,000.[3][4][5] During his presidency, there have been several violent struggles between the Janjaweed militia and rebel groups such the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in the form of guerrilla warfare in the Darfur region. The civil war has resulted in over 2.5 million people being displaced,[6] and the diplomatic relations between Sudan and Chad being at a crisis level.[7]

Al-Bashir is a controversial figure both in Sudan and worldwide. In July 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, accused al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.[8] The court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on 4 March 2009 on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him for genocide.[9][10] However, on 12 July 2010, after a lengthy appeal by the prosecution, the Court held that there was indeed sufficient evidence for charges of genocide to be brought and issued a second warrant containing three separate counts. The new warrant, as with the first, will be delivered to the Sudanese government, which is unlikely to execute it.[10] Al-Bashir is the third sitting head of state indicted by the ICC and the first to be charged with genocide.[10] The court's decision is opposed by the African Union, League of Arab States, Non-Aligned Movement, and the governments of Russia and the People's Republic of China.[11] [12] A leak from WikiLeaks allegedly reveals that the Sudanese president had embezzled state funds amounting to US$ 9 billion. This is justified by the International Criminal Court prosecutor who said it has evidence of corruption.[13]

Early and family life

Al-Bashir was born in Hosh Bannaga, just north of the capital, Khartoum. He comes from the same tribe that the first sudanese president Ismail Al-Azhari came from the Al-Bedairya Al-Dahmashya, a bedouin clan of the larger ja'alin tribe, an Arab tribe of hashimite origin in north of Sudan, then part of the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan. He received his primary education there, and his family later moved to Khartoum where he completed his secondary education. Al-Bashir is married to his cousin Fatima Khalid. He also has a second wife named Widad Babiker Omer, who had a number of children with her first husband Ibrahim Shamsaddin, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation who had died in a helicopter crash. Al-Bashir does not have any children of his own.[14]

Military career

He joined the Sudanese Army in 1960. Al-Bashir studied at the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo and also graduated from the Sudan Military Academy in Khartoum in 1966.[15] He quickly rose through the ranks and became a paratroop officer. Later, al-Bashir served in the Egyptian Army during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 against Israel.[16]

In 1975, al-Bashir was sent to the United Arab Emirates as the Sudanese military attaché. After his return home al-Bashir was made a garrison commander. In 1981 al-Bashir return to his paratroop background when he became the commander of an armoured parachute brigade.

Presidency

On 16 October 1993, al-Bashir's powers increased when he appointed himself President of the country, after which he disbanded the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation and all other rival political parties. The executive and legislative powers of the council were later given to al-Bashir completely.[18] In the early 1990s, al-Bashir's administration gave the green light to float a new currency called Sudanese Dinar to replace the battered old Sudanese Pound that had lost 90 percent of its worth during the turbulent 1980s. He was later elected president (with a five-year term) in the 1996 national election, where he was the only candidate by law to run for election[19] and Hassan al-Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where he served as speaker of the National Assembly "during the 1990s."[20] In 1998, al-Bashir and the Presidential Committee put into effect a new constitution, allowing limited political associations in opposition to al-Bashir's National Congress Party and his supporters to be formed, although these groups failed to gain any significant access to governmental power until the Darfur conflict became a subject. On 12 December 1999, al-Bashir sent troops and tanks against parliament and ousted Hassan al-Turabi, the speaker of parliament, in a palace coup.[21] However, despite receiving international criticism regarding internal conflicts, Omar al-Bashir has managed to achieve economic growth in Sudan.[22] This is partly because of the drilling and trading with oil from Southern Sudan.

Biography Of Field Marshal Omar Hassan president of SUDAN