|
Garang's body flown round south Sudan for mourning
04 Aug 2005 12:39:57 GMT
Source: Reuters
|
By Katie Nguyen NEW SITE, Sudan, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The body of former rebel leader and Vice President John Garang was flown to key towns around southern Sudan on Thursday for thousands of mourning supporters to pay their last respects. Garang's death in a weekend helicopter crash -- just three weeks after he was sworn in as Sudan's first vice president under a January north-south peace deal -- has devastated his followers around the vast southern bushlands. It has also sparked three days of rioting between northerners and southerners in the capital Khartoum that left at least 130 people dead and around 350 wounded. Garang's corpse was loaded onto a British-made cargo plane at an airstrip in New Site, the small settlement where leaders of his Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) have been meeting to mourn him and discuss their future. Garang led the SPLM in a bitter struggle with the Islamist Khartoum-based government for 21 years before signing the peace deal to end Africa's then longest-running civil war. Garang's body was headed for four towns at the centre of battles during the war: Kurmuk, Kauda, Rumbek and Yei. It will then be taken to Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, for burial on Saturday. The flag of southern Sudan covered Garang's coffin. Garang's widow Rebecca and some of her children boarded a separate cargo plane while about 100 former fighters of the SPLM accompanied the body for security purposes. Huge crowds were expected to turn out to pay their last respects to Garang, a towering figure in the region whose death has shaken the fragile peace process. "I say with my heart today the SPLM has become like a body without a head," said Bahjat Batarseh, a U.S. church minister who said he was a friend of Garang's and came to Sudan after learning of his death, during a prayer session before the trip. "If you keep divided, you will be destroyed. If you are united with one spirit, one heart, you will stand." Garang had strong support in the United States during the war that killed two million people, most from hunger and disease. Some southerners fear their position may be weakened without Garang. The SPLM appointed Garang's deputy, Salva Kiir, to formally succeed him and he is expected to be sworn in as first vice president in coming weeks.
|
|
|
Reset