KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) – The former rebel leader who spent 21 years fighting Khartoum’s government was sworn in Saturday as first vice president, pledging to unite Africa’s largest nation.

John Garang, who was greeted by 1 million people on his return to the capital Friday, took the oath for the country’s second most powerful position just after President Omar el-Bashir signed an interim constitution that promises broader freedoms for the Sudanese. The document also ended the state of emergency that has been in place off and on since 1989.

“Today, July 9, 2005, is Sudan’s day,” Garang said, pledging to work with el-Bashir and promising that “Sudan will never be the same again.”

The president urged Sudanese to “overcome the bitterness of the past” and move forward, vowing more freedoms and the normalization of the situation across the country.

“Our people are keen to enter a new era, and to achieve its hopes we have to discard violence and open the windows of tolerance,” el-Bashir said. “We have to develop our national economy, increase our production and work for eradication of poverty.”

Garang, the 60-year-old founder of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, was central to the southerners’ fight for autonomy and greater rights against Khartoum governments that sought to impose Islamic law throughout Africa’s largest nation. Some 2 million people died from fighting, famine or disease as a result of the war, which began in 1983.

Although Islamic law remains the rule, the constitution says it will not be applied in the mainly Christian and animist south and removes a requirement that the president be Muslim.

It provides for a coalition government, wealth and power sharing and democratic elections within three years. The south will also have a referendum on secession after six years.

Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, who as vice president was one of the major brokers of the January peace accord that paved the way for Saturday’s ceremonies, was sworn in Saturday as a vice president. Though Garang will be second to the president and even have veto power, Taha will still play a powerful role as the second-highest ruling party official after el-Bashir.

Garang, who was in Khartoum for the first time in 22 years, is the first southerner and Christian to hold such a high position in the largely Islamic government.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Saturday “a day of great hope for the Sudanese people, who have suffered so long.” But he warned that the unity symbolized by the new government was incomplete and precarious.

“All of us, your friends in the international community, must work together to preserve and nourish this tender plant, so that it grows into a sturdy tree of peace, prosperity and freedom for all the people of Sudan,” Annan said in a speech.

Saturday was declared a public holiday because of the ceremonies. Most downtown roads leading to the Republican Palace were blocked off and guarded by soldiers, and the public had been advised the day before not to drive in central Khartoum.

On Friday, Garang received a massive welcome at Green Square in northern Khartoum. Organizers said 1 million people filled the square, in what many said was the largest public gathering since Pope John Paul II visited in 1993.

AP-ES-07-09-05 1019EDT