Beshir 'fiery, defiant man'
2008-07-14 14:26
Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, the first sitting ruler named for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, is a fiery and defiant professional soldier who seized power 19 years ago in a coup.
His rule of Africa's biggest country, torn apart by war for much of its half century of independence, had been marked by Islamist resurgence, conflict and peace with the south, collision with the West and bitter war in Darfur.
"As an individual, as a member of the Jaali tribe, as a military officer and as head of state, he is intensely proud," said Sudan analyst Alex de Waal.
"When he feels humiliated, he is prone to angry outbursts marked by extreme rhetorical excess. His language becomes replete with exhortations to avenge insult and betrayal and crush the cowards and traitors."
Beshir refuses to co-operate
On Monday, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Beshir of masterminding a genocidal campaign to try to wipe out three ethnic groups, calling for an arrest warrant for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.
Beshir refused to co-operate with the ICC or surrender officials wanted for alleged war crimes. He told United Nations ambassadors last month that a "vicious campaign" against Sudan had tarnished its image, heritage and values.
Beshir, 64, toppled a three-year-old democratically elected government in a bloodless coup on June 30 1989, backed by the National Islamic Front party of his now sidelined former mentor Hassan al-Turabi.
He declared a nationwide state of emergency, suspended the constitution, dismissed parliament and disbanded all political parties.
His regime then introduced Sudan to a more radical brand of Islam and elements of Sharia law, alienating Christians and animists in the south and many in the northern Arab elite who grew up under British rule.
Peace deal
Beshir and Turabi established the Popular Defence Forces, which deployed in the south to fight Jihad or holy war against the "infidels", raising the stakes in what dragged into Africa's longest running civil war until a 2005 peace deal.
Yet in promulgating a power-sharing constitution with the former rebels that opened a path to democratic transformation in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) Beshir surprised even his staunchest critics.
Born in 1944 into a rural family in Hoshe Bannaga, an Arab heartland 100km north of Khartoum, Omar Hassan al-Beshir joined the military at a young age.
He rose quickly through the ranks and served with the Egyptian army in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. He went on to serve as military attaché in the United Arab Emirates, garrison commander and as head of an armoured parachute brigade.
In 1988, at the height of the civil war between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, he was appointed commander of the eighth brigade, stationed in the south and considered poorly-equipped.