The unexpected and disastrous news of the death of Dr. John Garang, first vice president of Sudan since July 9, and better known as the long-term leader of the rebellion in the south of the Sudan, plunges the largest country in Africa into a new and extremely dangerous crisis. Is the peace deal signed in January about to unravel before our eyes? Sudan has experienced the full nightmare of a civil war for 21 years, which has killed some two million people and displaced at least five million. Is the killing about to start up again?
So far little is known of the helicopter crash which killed John Garang on July 30. The Times reported (Aug. 2):
“Mr Garang had travelled to Uganda on Friday to meet Yoweri Museveni, the president, on his ranch 200 miles South East of Kampala, the capital. President Museveni offered Mr. Garang the use of one of his Russian-built Mi-172 helicopters to return home. It left Kampala at 5.30 p.m. on Saturday but was unable to land at New Site because of heavy rain. The aircraft crashed in the Eastern Equatoria province near the Ugandan border while the pilot was looking for an alternative landing area”
Dr. Garang’s home is at New Site in southern Sudan to where his body was taken for burial.
John Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) accepted that the crash was an accident. Inevitably in such circumstances rumors have spread, and in the crowded and squalid refugee camps in the Khartoum area, there has been a widespread feeling that his helicopter came down as a result of action taken by agents of the government in Khartoum. I have no reason to support such wild allegations, which sparked riots that lasted for several days and left over 130 people dead. The UN offered to help investigate the crash. President Museveni has set up a panel to find its cause.
Tributes flowed in. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, expressed “great sorrow”. Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “Dr. Garang worked long and hard for recognition and equal treatment of the people of the south, and over the past few years worked tirelessly to reach a just political settlement to bring a stable and lasting peace to the country. It is tragic that he will not witness its success.”
I have my reservations over John Garang who leaves a wife and six children. In the 1980s, as a colonel in Sudan Army, he was dispatched to handle a mutiny of southern troops who had disobeyed orders to move to the north (a touchy issue for the Sudanese Army). Disloyally he changed sides and, in time, founded Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He changed his politics with similar ease. He was a Marxist when he had Ethiopian backers, and then became a Christian — Christianity being the main but by no means the only religion in the south. This helped gain support from the West, especially from America, which has contributed to the problems of Sudan through ignorance and prejudice. There have been reports that American Special Forces were actively supporting the rebel forces in the south at one stage of the conflict. John Garang had charisma, but this tall, bearded leader made use of child soldiers. He had a well established reputation for ruthlessness and for violating human rights.
The SPLM can be congratulated for so quickly appointing his successor, Salva Kiir, like John Garang a member of the Dinka tribe. He was a loyal deputy leader, and is an experienced and trusted military officer. However the political labyrinths of Khartoum will be a totally new experience for him and he has to prove that, like John Garang, he can be a unifying figure. The problems of the Sudan, north as well as south, and particularly Darfur, represent towering and bewildering challenges.
That the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army has openly welcomed the death of John Garang is a reminder of yet another problem facing Salva Kiir. This army, which has kidnapped children to be its soldiers and terrorizes north Uganda, has sanctuaries in southern Sudan. John Garang was committed to removing it from southern Sudan, and it remains essential that it is eliminated in both Sudan and Uganda.
It requires little imagination to realize John Garang’s death comes at a particularly bad moment for the Sudan. The peace process is at an early and fragile stage and it has its critics in the north. The unity of the south without John Garang is in question. There are quickly mounting fears over the future.
The problems of Sudan can only be solved, at the end of the day, by the Sudanese people coming together and working together. The nation must be put before the tribe and the region. I am confident it will be.