SUDANESE President Omar al-Beshir danced, punched the air in delight with his walking stick and shouted `God is Great` in his first public appearance today as a war crimes suspect.
Hours after being named by the International Criminal Court prosecutor over alleged crimes and genocide in Darfur, Beshir appeared to have hardly a care in the world at an elaborate ceremony to ink Sudan`s new electoral law.
The message was clear: in Sudan, it was business as usual.
Sitting on a high podium in the giant Chinese-built Friendship Hall in Khartoum before more than 500 supporters and Sudan`s most senior leaders, Beshir was given roars of support as he stood to sign the electoral law.
Flanked by Vice-President Ali Osman Taha and First Vice-President Salva Kiir, leader of the semi-autonomous south, he listened to speeches of national unity with an audience of representatives from the north, former rebel foes from the south and ex-fighters from the east.
Many in the audience, which also included high-ranking army officials, Muslim and Christian leaders and several foreign diplomats, stood to dance in a brief music break.
Beshir, dressed in traditional Sudanese white robes, made no speech but shouted "God is Great!" as he left the stage after the hour-long ceremony.
The comment was greeted by roars of support from the crowd, who left the hall to bursts of fireworks, dancing and a meal laid out in the gardens.
The signing ceremony formalised a much delayed law, which was approved in parliament last week and paves the way for national elections due next year as part of a 2005 north-south peace deal.
Speakers praised the law as a "historic moment" for Sudan that would help "reconciliation between the Sudanese people".
But the ICC announcement loomed over the gathering and several speakers angrily rejected the prosecutor`s denunciation of Beshir.
"What the ICC is doing is just one episode in the long series of episodes Sudan has been suffering for years," said one senior politician in a speech, who dismissed it as "political plotting".
"But the Sudanese people have always been able to overcome these obstacles."
"Mr President, they shall never touch you!" added another official.
For Beshir, the ceremony was a neatly timed and well orchestrated show of unity in defiance of the ICC announcement.
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