|
Garang
Killed in Copter Crash, Riots in Khartoum
 |
|
Garang, 60, became vice president only three weeks ago after a landmark peace deal. (Reuters)
|
KHARTOUM,
August 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Confirming
the death of First Vice President and former southern rebel leader
John Garang in a helicopter crash, both the Sudanese government and
the rebels reaffirmed commitment to the peace process that ended one
of Africa's longest civil wars.
"The
presidency has followed the reports about the disappearance of the
aircraft of Sudanese Vice-President John Garang and it is confirmed
beyond doubt that it crashed in the Amatonj mountains," said a
statement from Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"It
resulted in the death of John Garang and six people accompanying him
as well as seven members of the crew of the Ugandan presidential
aircraft," added the statement, which was read on state
television.
The
Amatonj mountains are in the Eastern Equatorial province of Sudan near
the border with Uganda.
An
Ugandan official later said in Kampala that the wreckage of the
crashed Ugandan helicopter and the bodies of Garang and the 13 other
people on board had been located in a remote area of southern Sudan.
Garang,
60, became vice president only three weeks ago following the January
peace deal that ended 21 years of conflict between north and south
Sudan, then Africa's longest-running civil war.
He
returned to Khartoum in early July for the first time since the 1983
launch of the civil war, also took the oath as head of a new
autonomous administration for south Sudan.
His
swearing-in followed the promulgation of a new power-sharing
constitution provided for under the peace agreement.
The
tall, balding, US-educated economist-turned-guerrilla once derided in
the West as a Soviet stooge, had finally won respectability as
southern leader.
The
completion of the process brought full circle Garang's transformation
from rebel leader to statesman.
Bad
Weather
Two
Ugandan officials said earlier the crash occurred Saturday, July 30,
after Garang and his entourage left Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni's ranch in western Uganda heading for his base, known as New
Site, in southern Sudan aboard a presidential MI-72 helicopter but
were unable to land there due to poor weather.
"This
was a presidential helicopter and it had enough fuel, the cause was
simply bad weather," an Ugandan official told AFP.
A
statement from Museveni's office said the chopper had last been heard
by villagers near the town of Pirre near the Kenyan border.
Garang
had been in Uganda to meet with Museveni and US and EU diplomats.
In
the Kenyan capital, officials said the SPLM/A had confirmed Garang's
death in the crash to diplomats.
Peace
Goes On
 |
|
"We guarantee that the peace process will continue progressing in the same direction," Beshir said.
|
The
SPLM/A, meanwhile, said the death of its leader would not affect its
commitment to a landmark January peace deal with Khartoum.
In
a statement read to reporters at SPLM/A headquarters in the Kenyan
capital following confirmation of Garang's death, the group urged all
Sudanese to remain calm and said its leaders would be meeting in an
emergency session to plot strategy.
"I
take this opportunity to assure the southern Sudanese in particular
and the Sudanese people in general that we in the SPLM/A leadership
will continue the vision and the objective of the movement that Dr
John Garang has articulated and hoped to implement," said the
group's deputy commander Salva Kiiri.
"We
also want to assure everyone that the leadership and cadres of the
SPLM/A will remain united and strive to faithfully implement the
comprehensive peace agreement," he said.
"I
call on all members of the SPLM/A and the entire Sudanese nation to
remain calm and vigilant," Kiiri said.
"In
this regard, I have ordered the former members of the SPLM/A
leadership council to assemble at New Site, Kapoeta County for an
emergency meeting," he said.
"I
am now on my way to New Site to join the rest of the leadership and
the family of Dr Garang."
Al-Beshir,
on his part, stressed the same message, expressing determination to
pursue the peace process despite the death of the country's first vice
president and southern leader.
"We
guarantee that the peace process will continue progressing in the same
direction," Beshir said in an official statement announcing
Garang's death.
"His
passing will only reinforce our determination to pursue the peace
process he and his comrades had started with the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement," said the statement read on public
television.
"By
announcing this terrible event, the president of the republic extends
his condolences to the entire Sudanese people and the world for the
death of a man who believed in peace and worked towards it with
sincerity, determination."
Riots
In
another development, riots broke out in the streets of the Sudanese
capital following the official announcement of Garang's death.
Thousands
took to the streets of Khartoum and its outskirts, some wielding
knives and guns.
Several
people were lying on the ground, some possibly dead, according to an
AFP correspondent.
"Very
serious incidents are taking place right now in Khartoum with bursts
of Kalashnikov fire and burning cars," a European diplomat based
in Khartoum told AFP.
He
said roadblocks had been set up throughout the city and that access to
the airport had been blocked since morning.
Bridges
across the two branches of the Nile which meet in Khartoum were all
closed, and schools and public buildings closed.
The
diplomat said Western embassies were preparing to appeal to nationals
to remain in their homes.
Doha-based
Aljazeera all-news channel aired images of bloody riots, with cars and
buildings in flames and scenes of chaos.
|
