US envoys to meet SPLM’s Salav Kiir
NEW SITE, Sudan, Aug 3 (AFP) — Two senior US envoys are to meet here Wednesday with the new chief of southern Sudan’s ex-rebel group amid fears the weekend death of his predecessor, John Garang, may imperil a landmark peace deal.
Amid recurrent deadly violence in Khartoum that erupted after Garang’s death on Saturday in a helicopter crash, Constance Newman, the top US diplomat for Africa, and Roger Winter, Washington’s special envoy for Sudan, are to hold talks with Salva Kiir, who now heads the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), officials said.
The United States, which invested much political capital into securing the January pact that ended 21 years of north-south civil war in Sudan, and others are concerned the agreement may unravel despite vows from both Kiir and Khartoum to uphold the deal.
Newman and Winter, who will see Kiir at the SPLM/A base here before heading to the capital for talks, were dispatched “to confer with the parties and encourage them to maintain momentum on the comprehensive peace agreement and on Darfur,” the State Department said on Tuesday.
The United States and others had been hoping that the January 9 peace deal that brought Africa’s longest-running civil war to an end, could serve as a template for resolving the crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
Garang’s death and the rioting it has sparked in Khartoum have potentially clouded those hopes as well as prospects for the speedy implementation of the massive reconstruction the north-south agreement was supposed to bring to the south.
As the US envoys headed for Nairobi en route to New Site, the UN Security Council on Tuesday appealed for restraint and urged all Sudanese to honor Garang’s memory “by restoring peace and calm throughout Sudan.”
“This is a time for the world community to come together to support Dr Garang’s vision of a united and peaceful Sudan,” the council said in a statement.
But in Khartoum, angry southern rioters convinced the crash that killed Garang was not an accident, as both SPLM/A and Sudanese officials maintain, continued to clash with security forces and northerners.
At least 42 people were killed in two days of rioting that broke out on Monday immediately after Garang’s death in the crash of a Ugandan helicopter was confirmed by the Sudanese government.
Late Monday, the SPLM/A appointed Kiir, Garang’s longtime deputy, to take over his duties as the group’s leader and the posts of first vice president of Sudan and president of an autonomous southern Sudan.
Garang had assumed the latter two positions just three weeks before his death under the terms of the January agreement which calls for southern Sudan to enjoy six years of autonomy under a national unity government in Khartoum, followed by a referndum on secession.