Sudan’s Garang dissolves SPLM leadership council

The first batch of the troops of the Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) arrive in Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, July 18, 2005, ready to form the joint peace keeping force. (AP).

KHARTOUM, July 18, 2005 (Xinhua) — Sudanese First-Vice President and Head of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) John Garang on Monday issued a decree to dissolve the SPLM’s leadership council.

Based on the decree, all members of the leadership council were relieved from their positions except for the elected chairman and deputy chairman of the movement.

In the meantime, Garang also dissolved the legislative council, national legislative council, national executive council, regional administrations and the provinces of the SPLM.

Garang confirmed that he had taken the move under his authorities in accordance with the decisions of the national conference of 1994 and the decisions of the SPLM’s National Liberation Council of 1999 and under the framework of the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Garang was sworn in as Sudanese first-vice president on July 9 in a ceremony witnessed by a host of foreign dignitaries.

He signed a peace agreement in January with the Sudanese government to end more than two decades of civil war in the country.