KHARTOUM, 12 August 2005 — Salva Kiir was sworn in as Sudan’s first vice president yesterday after the death of his predecessor John Garang and pledged to follow his legacy and work for unity despite past calls for independence for the mainly Christian or animist south.

“We really want our country to remain united,” Kiir said at a low-key ceremony in Khartoum where security was tight after several days of deadly rioting that greeted Garang’s death.

Kiir, 54, took office less than two weeks after Garang was killed in a helicopter crash that raised fears for the future of a January peace deal that ended 21 years of war between southern rebels and the government in Khartoum.

“I shall protect the sovereignty of the country,” said Kiir, a known separatist who led the military wing of Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Army (SPLM A) “I shall protect the country’s decentralized system... and preserve unity... as God is my witness,” he said. “I wish to call on all Sudanese to engage in a process of national healing.”

One of his primary challenges will be to form a national unity government with former archfoe President Omar Bashir, a process interrupted by Garang’s death just three weeks after he became vice president under the Jan. 9 accord.

Kiir, who replaced Garang as SPLM A head, will also have to help solve disputes surrounding oil-rich areas on the north-south border.

He is also to continue talks with several Khartoum-backed southern militia chiefs with a view to rallying them to the peace agreement that ended Africa’s longest-running conflict. “The Comprehensive Peace Agreement is not a bed of roses, and even a bed of roses has thorns. Let’s join hands to see that full participation in the process is ensured,” he said.

He warned that full peace would not be achieved if Sudan remained mired in conflict in its western Darfur region and the volatile east. “Comprehensive peace requires the quick resolution of Darfur and eastern Sudan,” he said.

The Sudanese president vowed to work for peace in both the east and Darfur, and promised to prosecute officials accused of abuses in the government’s suppression of the more than two-year-old ethnic minority uprising in the latter region. “No criminal will escape punishment,” he pledged.

Bashir said Kiir’s swift appointment as first vice president to succeed Garang showed the January peace agreement was no longer vulnerable to “the death or life of anybody.” It had “become a living reality,” he said.

He pledged to foster “good governance” and “democracy,” and invited all political forces to join in postwar reconstruction.

The ceremony at Khartoum’s Republican Palace was brief and low-key compared to Garang’s lavish swearing-in less than a month ago.

The United States, which invested much political capital in the January pact, has expressed confidence in the SPLM A and Kiir’s ability to uphold the deal.

A key point of argument is oil, and UN special envoy Jan Pronk has urged Kiir to push for a quick resolution of territorial quarrelling over oil-rich areas in central Sudan.

Until a promised 2011 referendum on independence for the south, oil wealth is to be shared and concessions awarded by a joint commission. Most oil fields lie in the south.