Bashir has shown himself to be an astute politician even when world opinion weighs heavily against him as in the case of Darfur. His visit to the south of Sudan, which is widely expected to be declared a sovereign country after the referendum deciding that issue Sunday, was a masterly move to paint himself as the grandfatherly conciliator of a country that has experienced a 22-year civil war in which two million people were killed and four million displaced. The grand gesture of visiting the south was also executed on the world media stage, making it virtually impossible for the president to do anything but follow up on his offers to help the new nation and to get busy right away in formalizing the relationship between north and south Sudan. The north and south of Sudan have been at odds for more than just the past 30 year. The people in each area are different in terms of religion, ethnicity and economics. With the majority of Sudanese oil located in the southern half of the country, its secession has long been a point of hot contention. Rather than filling mass graves, however, Al-Bashir has come to realize that cooperation with a fiercely defiant south will allow all of Sudan to prosper. Rather than fight over oil profits, water rights and all the rest of the issues that afflict Sudan, it is more civilized and more profitable to share the oil revenue in an acceptably organized manner so as to benefit all of the Sudanese people with infrastructure funding and outright government largess. This has been called a “pivotal moment” for Sudan, and we would concur with that assessment. Al-Bashir has been on the defensive refuting charges about his treatment of Darfur and other actions inside his government. A peaceful transition for southern Sudan, with the help of the Al-Bashir government, would put a new face on Khartoum. __
