Sudan marks 4 years of north-south peace | Antiwar Newswire: "Sudan's embattled president marked the fourth anniversary of a fragile peace between the country's north and south, promising on Friday to restore confidence in national unity even as he faces accusations by an international court for war crimes in Darfur.
Omar al-Bashir flew to the small town of Malakal in southern Sudan, where he addressed a crowd of several thousand at a local stadium together with his vice president and former rival, southern leader Salva Kiir.
Both sounded a somber note, putting aside their usual blame-casting over Sudan's woes, called for reconciliation of all Sudanese and for preserving the 2005 peace deal that ended nearly two decades of civil war between north and south.
The fighting left an estimated 2 million dead. The peace deal created a unity government, established a semiautonomous south, and provided for wealth-sharing. It also envisaged national and presidential elections in 2009 and a referendum in the south on unity in 2011 — a vote that could allow the south to secede."
Omar al-Bashir flew to the small town of Malakal in southern Sudan, where he addressed a crowd of several thousand at a local stadium together with his vice president and former rival, southern leader Salva Kiir.
Both sounded a somber note, putting aside their usual blame-casting over Sudan's woes, called for reconciliation of all Sudanese and for preserving the 2005 peace deal that ended nearly two decades of civil war between north and south.
The fighting left an estimated 2 million dead. The peace deal created a unity government, established a semiautonomous south, and provided for wealth-sharing. It also envisaged national and presidential elections in 2009 and a referendum in the south on unity in 2011 — a vote that could allow the south to secede."
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