Uganda launches probe into crash of Garang helicopter

KAMPALA, Aug 1 (AFP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Monday he would appoint a special panel to investigate the weekend crash of his helicopter that killed Sudanese Vice President John Garang and 13 others.

Uganda president Yoweri Museveni (L) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA) leader John Garang (R) share a joke during the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the SPLA and the Sudan Government in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, Januray 9, 2005. (Reuters).

In addition, Museveni said Uganda had asked a foreign government to look into Saturday’s crash to definitively establish that it was an accident as officials in Kampala have insisted and not the result of sabotage or terrorism.

“I have decided to create a panel of three experts to look into this crash,” Museveni said, adding that the team would be appointed shortly by Uganda’s transport minister.

“We have also approached a certain foreign government to rule out any form of sabotage or terrorism,” he said in a statement read to parliament by Vice President Gilbert Bukenya that did not identify the government involved.

Garang, 60, died while en route from Museveni’s ranch in the western Uganda town of Rwakitura to his New Site base in southern Sudan in the Ugandan leader’s presidential helicopter.

Ugandan and Sudanese officials have said the aircraft was forced to abort a landing at New Site due to poor weather and shortly thereafter crashed in the mountainous region near the convergence of the Ugandan, Kenyan and Sudanese borders.

Museveni’s statement dwelt at length on the safety features of the Russian-built Mi-172 executive chopper that Uganda purchased eight years ago and, according to him, was outfitted with advanced navigation instruments.

In his comments, Museveni also praised Garang for being a true African patriot whose death was tragic but should not derail January’s landmark peace deal that ended Sudan’s 21-year-old north-south civil war.

“The death of our brother is a tragic loss to the cause of patriotic Africa,” he said. “It was a great shock and a source of anger to see that Dr Garang, could lose his life when peace was beginning to come back to Sudan.”