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 and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
danced on Saturday with his defence minister at a rally for paramilitary troops two days after the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
issued a warrant for the latter's arrest.
"We will start a major campaign to face the enemies of God and the state," Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein told more than 1,000 members of the People's Defence Force (PDF), formed during the country's 22-year civil war.
The rally, designed to showcase the PDF's fighting readiness, was the first of its kind since the 2005 peace deal that ended the civil war and led to South Sudan's independence last July after an overwhelming vote to separate.
It came as analysts and diplomats warn that escalating tensions between the two countries threaten to erupt into direct conflict.
Bashir and Hussein, both in military uniform, danced together to a PDF rallying song after the president announced an expansion of the PDF forces.
"We will call these troops a 'deterrence force'," Bashir said at a Khartoum football stadium.
He said he was ordering all state governors to open training camps for fresh PDF recruits.
Each state is to form one brigade, with an additional seven coming from the capital Khartoum, the president said after rifle-toting male and female members of the militia staged a march-past.
The new recruits will "beat anyone who tries to disturb the security of Sudan," Bashir vowed.
On Thursday The Hague-based International Criminal Court said it had issued an arrest warrant for Hussein, covering crimes against the civilian population in Darfur, in Sudan's western region.
"We want to say to them: we will defend the dignity of Sudan" and its Islamist regime, Bashir responded.
Hussein, 60, is the sixth person sought by the ICC or before the court for crimes committed in Darfur, where rebel groups drawn from the region's non-Arab tribes rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003.