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.
, giving a rare battlefield toll, says 163 members of the controversial Rapid Support Forces have been killed in Darfur and South Kordofan.
Bashir "referred to the martyrdom of 163 of the troops and the wounding of others in the operations during five months," according to comments carried late Sunday by the official SUNA news agency.
In an April report, UN chief
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
said Rapid Support elements had attacked and burned villages in Darfur, where Khartoum said they were deployed against rebels.
After Sudanese opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi reportedly made similar accusations, state security agents detained him for about a month.
Rapid Support, which is under the authority of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), has denied that their unit raped, looted or committed arson.
Violence throughout Darfur reached its worst levels in a decade this year, displacing about 300,000 people from late February to mid-April before unrest began to ease.
Mohammed Ibn Chambas, head of the UNAMID peacekeeping mission in Darfur, has said that activities of the RSF were of "particular concern".
But rebel offensives, criminal activity and inter-communal fighting also contributed to this year's "alarming escalation of violence", he said.
Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor for the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
(ICC), has called Rapid Support Forces a new version of the Janjaweed militia.
Insurgents from black tribes in Darfur rose up 11 years ago against what they said was the domination of Sudan's power and wealth by Arab elites.