Southern Sudanese riot in Khartoum after Garang death

By Khaled Abdel-Aziz

KHARTOUM, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Thousands of southern Sudanese, some wielding knives and bars, looted shops and clashed with police in the streets of Khartoum on Monday after learning of the death of ex-rebel leader John Garang, witnesses said.

Southern Sudanese women mourn the death of Sudan’s First Vice-President and former rebel leader of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement John Garang in Nairobi, Kenya, August 1, 2005. (Reuters).

“People have been running all over the streets. The policemen are taking people from the streets. There is fire and smoke,” a Reuters TV witness said.

“They are beating anybody they see who looks like they are Arab,” Swayd Abdullah, a student, told Reuters.

Shops closed and there was a heightened security presence in the streets, witnesses said.

The southern Sudanese, who recently gave Garang a tumultuous welcome when he travelled north to take up his post as vice-president in the new power-sharing government, also smashed cars and shops in several hours of rioting, the witnesses said.

“There are groups of southern Sudanese on the streets attacking people and wrecking shops but the areas with governmental buildings are quiet,” said Seif al-Deen Abdallah, a Khartoum taxi driver.

Some gunfire could be heard, although it was not clear if that was in mourning for Garang or from fighting.

Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera showed film footage from Khartoum of a man laying face down on the pavement with blood coming from his head and at least four burning vehicles.

There were also reports of violence in the south, where Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) fought a 21-year war against the mainly Islamic government in Khartoum until January’s peace accord.

Anglican priest Reverend Paul Yugusuk said he had heard reports of rioting in Juba, one of the main population centres in the south. “There are reports that people are on the streets smashing shop-fronts,” he told reporters in Uganda, citing telephone calls with people in the area.

An aid worker with Catholic Relief Services in Yei in southern Sudan said there was shooting there, but only out of respect for Garang. “People are shooting in the air as a sign of mourning. There are gunshots everywhere,” he told Reuters in Nairobi by phone from Yei.

(Reporting by Reuters TV in Khartoum; Wangui Kanina and Bryson Hull in Nairobi; Daniel Wallis in Kampala; Amil Khan)