Key Darfur Rebels Back Salva Kiir for President

Darfur’s rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) has announced that it will support southern leader Salva Kiir’s bid to become Sudan’s president in elections slated for July 2009. The SLM says it will back Kiir because his former rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) was a “strategic partner in the liberation”, having waged war against incumbent President Omar al-Bashir’s government for decades. Kiir, who is President of Sudan’s semi-autonomous South under a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, has declared his intention to run against Bashir for the national presidency. [PE]