Museveni is very afraid of the North and East that he can do anything to keep
the region down. But guess what, he has lost; its only a matter of time.
The North and East that he tried very hard to isolate from the grate lake
population are now back among their Africans folks with no mincing words.
Khartoum knows how Garang died and what caused it; maybe over Kony's head!
Who knows. The Arabs however are much more crafty than Mu7 thought. Anyways,
the truth shall eventually come out.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Garang was murdered, says Sudan ANGELO IZAMA, PAUL HARERA & HUSSIEN
BOGERE Garang did not die in Museveni chopper
Pilot disagreed with crew while in air
Garang was killed by people he thought were his friends
THE ghost of John Garang is back to haunt Sudanese and regional politics, this
time around with a bold declaration from Khartoum that the South Sudan leader
was assassinated.
In an interview with the Sudanese Arab-language daily Akhbar Alyoum, an English
translation of which was published online at www.newsudanvision.com on August
14, the Sudanese State Minister of Interior Aleu Ayeny Aleu suggests that the
helicopter crash that killed Garang in July 2005 was an orchestrated murder
plot and not an accident as the final investigation report claimed.
Mr Aleu also claims that Garang did not die in President Musevenis official
helicopter but that he had switched aircraft at Entebbe on his way back to
Sudan. He claims the fallen founder of the Sudan Peoples Liberation
Movement/Army used a military chopper which then crashed due to bad weather and
questionable piloting.
This is not the first time Garangs death is being attributed to foul play but
is part of a growing appeal in South Sudan for a criminal investigation to be
opened into Garangs death.
Until now the accepted version of the death was that Garang died after
President Musevenis helicopter crashed with him on board following a meeting
that the two held at the latters country home in Rwakitura in western Uganda.
All 13 people on board perished.
The interior minister, however, claims that a conspiracy of silence kept the
real truth from the public. Yesterday, the Uganda government spokesman Kirunda
Kivejinja said, [Aleu] should tell us who murdered [Garang] so that we know.
He added that if Mr Aleu knows of a better method of discovering the truth he
should come forward.
Mr Aleu was a member of the Sudanese group that was part of the international
team that investigated the crash. Uganda was also represented on the team that
had experts from the United States.
According to him, Garang was asked by Mr Bakri Hassan Saleh, the Sudanese
presidential affairs minister, to use the official presidential plane for his
flight to Uganda.
Mr Aleu claims the organisers of Garangs meeting, which included the Ugandan
government and three western ambassadors, convinced the Sudan establishment
that they would provide him with transportation. He did not name the
ambassadors.
One of the questions heavily debated in the aftermath of the helicopter crash,
which also claimed the lives of the Ugandan crew and Garangs guards, is why
the president of South Sudan and also first vice president of Sudan, did not
fly an official aircraft as protocol requires. No explanation has been offered.
He was just weeks old as Sudanese VP when he died.
Mr Aleu says that while the international report into Garangs death cited
pilot error as the main reason for the helicopter crash, in truth matters were
far worse.
The information that was presented to our committee indicates that the pilot
[Col. Peter Nyakairu] was previously demoted from his military ranks one day
before piloting the plane carrying Dr. John Garang, Mr Aleu told the paper.
He says the committee, however, did not look into the circumstances under which
Nyakairu had been allegedly demoted but instead says there was evidence that he
was at odds with his flight crew. For example, the pilot allegedly disagreed
with his crew after the helicopter was airborne.
Public information, however, shows that Nyakairu was not demoted but promoted
well before the tragedy, a fact that could cast doubt on some of Mr Aleus
allegations.
That Mr Aleu is claiming foul play is not new. President Museveni first cast
doubt on the accident theory just days after the fatal crash. He said he could
not rule out the role of external factors.
Last year, when a Shs7 billion cheque from the National Insurance Corporation
was paid out as compensation money to the government, sources close to the
presidency told this newspaper that Mr Museveni was still unconvinced that his
comrade Garang died as a result of an accident.
President Museveni and Garang first met as politically inclined students in the
late 1960s at the University of Dar es Salaam. Some of Mr Aleus allegations
have a familiar ring. He claims in the interview that the helicopter was not
airworthy adding that some Ugandan security agents were inexplicably on board.
His other claims are, however, fresh and cast a long shadow on Garangs death.
Mr Aleu claims that the real presidential chopper was switched with another
plane which explains the poor condition of the helicopter that crashed.
According to him, when parts of the helicopter were examined by analysts in
Moscow it was discovered that the aircrafts designations did not match those
of the presidential chopper.
We found out that the machine numbers were not compatible with the so-called
presidential number and that number AF, 605 differs from the presidential
numbers main rotor burp 8-1930-000821-5387, he says.
According to Mr Aleu, the pilots assistant, in a recorded conversation during
the flight, seemed unsure of the planes details. Sometimes he said UK747
[instead of UK757]. The other plane was holding number ATCO-AF-605118:2. The
plane that had crashed does not hold number 096112 (1997 Russian 02/07/05).
Mr Aleu claims that the chopper that crashed belonged to the Ugandan military
and that when this alleged fact came to light some on his committee limited the
investigation to mechanical failure. He said when he attempted to verify the
identity of the two helicopters, he was blocked by Kampala. Ugandan
authorities refused to allow me to look at the grounded plane [at Entebbe]
which was the presidential chopper, he told Akhbar Alyoum.
Not long ago, Ms Rebecca Nyandeng, Garangs widow, claimed her husband was a
victim of a murder plot.
At the back of my mind, I knew my husband was assassinated, Ms Nyandeng said
in an interview in Nairobi.
She did not name the assassins. Daily Monitor could not reach her on phone by
press time. An assistant said she was in South Africa for treatment. Neither
could we reach Mr Lam Akol, a southern Sudanese who is the foreign minister of
Sudan in power-sharing deal with SPLM/A.
Officially, the South Sudan government has accepted the conclusion that it was
pilot error that led to Garangs death.
Mr Ali Sadiq, Khartoums foreign affairs ministry spokesperson, yesterday
declined to comment on Mr Aleus claims.
In an interview with the Daily Nation about Ms Nyandengs claims of
assassination, President Salva Kiir of South Sudan said that he was satisfied
with the final report by investigators.
I was with her when the report was presented but she did not raise any of the
statements she is now making, Mr Kiir said.
In a recent reshuffle, Mr Kiir dropped Ms Nyandeng as minister and retained her
only as an advisor. Two years after Garangs death, Mr Aleu suggests his ghost
will only rest with an international criminal investigation. Garang was killed
by people who he thought were his friends, Mr Aleu concluded. Mr John
Nasasira, the minister of works and transport who also chaired the crash
investigation committee, cast doubt on the credibility of the Arabic paper
interview.
I do not know if the minister was interviewed or even quoted rightly , he
said yesterday.
Dr John Garang de Mabiors death led to riots in South Sudanese towns where he
was a hero to many.
---------------------------------
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