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02/08/2005 | A death bodes ill for Sudan

Marc Lacey

With John Garang's body lying in the next hut, Sudan's southern rebels huddled in this remote outpost Monday night to salvage a historic peace agreement that their leader struck with Sudan's government earlier this year before dying suddenly in a helicopter crash over the weekend.

 

The unexpected death of Garang, a towering rebel commander who became Sudan's vice president just three weeks ago, plunged into the unknown a peace process that had been moving tentatively forward.
 
Riots broke out in Khartoum, the capital, as suspicious southerners accused the northern government that Garang had long attempted to topple of orchestrating his death. "Murderers! Murderers!" demonstrators cried as they burned cars and threw stones.
 
A Uganda military helicopter that had been ferrying Garang from a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to this rebel command center crashed in the hilly terrain south of here on Saturday night. Six of Garang's security detail and a crew of seven also perished. The authorities blamed bad weather for the crash and ruled out foul play.
 
Garang's wife, Rebecca, took to the radio to attempt to calm her countrymen. One minute she was sobbing with close relatives at the rebel command center here, the next she was speaking stoically.
 
"It is the body who has gone," she said. "His spirit, his vision, his program - we're going to implement them."
 
Garang had been leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army for 21 years, ruling with a quick wit and ferocious temper and hoping to see the long-suffering people of southern Sudan experience modern schools and hospitals and paved roads.
 
The sobbing and wailing and anger that broke out all across Sudan on Monday was in marked contrast to the jubilation on display on July 9, when Garang was swarmed by enthusiastic crowds as he was sworn in as vice president.
 
"At that time, it was such a moment of hope," said the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan. "Here is a man who had lived and fought for peace and one united Sudan, and just as he was on the verge of achieving what he has lived and fought for, he is taken away from us."
 
On the face of things there was an orderly succession in place. Garang had chosen a senior military commander, Salva Kiir Mayardit, just days before his death to be his No. 2. But Garang, even with his long experience at the helm of the rebel command, had struggled to keep southerners together.
 
Divided by clan and frustrated by the slow pace of peace and development, southerners have expressed displeasure at times with Garang's leadership. Mayardit himself was instrumental in convening a meeting of the rebel command to urge Garang to be a more inclusive leader.
 
Although both men are veteran sol-diers, Mayardit lacks his predecessor's political experience and broad contacts overseas. Garang visited Washington numerous times over the years and was on a first-name basis with presidents, secretaries of state and members of Congress.
 
Garang was credited with championing the rights of some of the most destitute people on earth. Southern Sudan is without paved roads. Those children who do go to school do so many times in the open air with blackboards propped up against trees. Diseases wiped out in other parts of the world still thrive here.
 
It was the religious dimension to the conflict that captured the attention of many congregations in the United States. Southerners in Sudan are mostly Christian and animist, and they picked up arms against the Islamist government in the north to defend their right to worship as well.
 
Most glossed over Garang's many negatives. His rebel movement committed many human rights violations over the years, and opponents of Garang often disappeared and were presumed dead.
 
The Bush administration played an important behind-the-scenes role in shepherding the peace process forward in recent years, leaning on both government officials and Garang to compromise.
 

NY Times (Estados Unidos)

 


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