|
Filed at 8:24 a.m. ET KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Rioters burned cars and threw stones in Sudan's capital on Monday after a helicopter crash killed the country's vice president, who until recently was a southern rebel leader. Sudanese leaders appealed for calm and said the nation's peace process would remain on track. But some southern Sudanese said they were suspicious about the circumstances of the death of John Garang, who was a key figure in a fledgling peace deal between the predominantly Arab Muslim government and the Christian south. Anti-riot police were deployed to several areas of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, where crowds were pelting passers-by with stones and smashing car windows. At least 10 private and government-owned cars were set on fire. The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said there were reports of violence in south Sudan and issued a reminder of its warnings to Americans to avoid non-essential travel to the country. There were no details on the southern violence. The violence and widespread grief surrounding Garang's death forced most in the capital to lock themselves inside their homes. Shop owners shuttered their stores. ''Murderers! Murderers!'' yelled some southern Sudanese protesters who alleged the Sudanese government, which had battled Garang's rebel force for two decades before this year's peace deals, may have been behind the crash. ''We lost Garang at a time when we needed him the most, but we think that we have made great strides toward peace and we believe that that peace process should continue,'' said Garang aide Nihal Deng during an emergency Cabinet meeting. Garang's longtime deputy, Silva Kiir, was quickly named to succeed him as head of his Sudan People's Liberation Army and as president of south Sudan, Garang spokesman Yasser Arman told The Associated Press. Kiir said he called a meeting of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement top decision-making body to assemble for an emergency meeting. The SPLM became part of the national unity government in July, when Garang became vice president. ''I call upon all members of the SPLM and the entire Sudanese nation to remain calm and vigilant,'' Kiir said. Garang died when the helicopter he was flying in crashed into a mountain in southern Sudan in bad weather, killing him and the other 13 people on board, Sudan's government said Monday. In the capital of neighboring Kenya, groups of southern Sudanese men huddled to discuss Garang's death. Nairobi has been the base for Garang's southern Sudan liberation movement and is home to thousands of southern Sudanese. One Sudanese man in Nairobi, Atem Maper, 30, said that younger southern Sudanese were suspicious of the circumstances of Garang's death. ''People are worried that the war will continue,'' Maper said. ''They didn't understand the way he died. We are going to see.'' But the chief mediator during Sudans' peace negotiations, Kenyan retired general Lazaro Sumbeiywo, said he was sure there was no foul play in Garang's death because he flew over an area he controlled. ''I totally disregard that (foul play theory) completely because the area he was flying into was an area he controlled,'' Sumbeiywo said. Garang's movement and the government vowed to move ahead with the peace process. But the charismatic leader's death strikes a blow to the January peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the mostly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south, in which some 2 million people died. Asked if there were any doubts over the cause of the crash, Garang spokesman Yasser Arman told The Associated Press that the group was awaiting an ''intensive investigation to determine the cause.'' The crash of Garang's flight brought up the specter of the 1994 downing of the airplane of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, who had been trying to implement a power-sharing deal between his fellow Hutus and the rival Tutsis. His death opened the doors to the Rwandan genocide in which more than 500,000 people were killed. ------ Mohamed Osman reported from Khartoum, and Tanalee Smith reported from Kassala, Sudan. Henry Wasswa contributed from Kampala, Uganda. Maggie Michael contributed from Cairo. The Mulindwas Communication Group |
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
