Sudan set for Bashir inauguration

Sudan set for Bashir inauguration

Omar al-Bashir is set to be sworn in as Sudan's president for another term after winning elections that were boycotted by major opposition parties last month.

Al-Bashir will be inaugurated on Thursday in a ceremony attended by several African leaders.
But it is unclear whether European diplomats will attend the inauguration of al-Bashir, who rejects claims that he ordered mass murder, rape and torture in the volatile Darfur region.
The international community is hoping that a referendum planned for January in the semi-autonomous south of Sudan will pass without violence, and will seek to maintain dialogue with al-Bashir's administration in the run-up to the poll.
Britain and the United States will not send their heads of missions, who are both out of the country. They will follow protocol and send diplomatic representation to the ceremony, the embassies said.
The United Nations is sending two senior diplomats to the country.
Controversial victory
Al-Bashir won the presidential election last month with 68 per cent of the vote after the main opposition candidates pulled out citing electoral fraud.
His party also did well in parliamentary polls, winning more than 95 per cent of the seats available in the north of country. In the south, the former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) won most of the seats.
The former enemies are now in talks to form a government that would allow South Sudan to hold a referendum on independence. Observers predict the referendum will see the oil-producing South secede from the rest of the country.
The southern vote on independence is set for January 9, 2011.
PHOTO CAPTION
Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir speaks during a national rally in Khartoum May 1, 2010.
Al-Jazeera

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