Anti-Arab riots break out in south Sudan capital after Garang death

KHARTOUM, Aug 1 (AFP) — Anti-Arab riots erupted Monday in Juba, the main city in southern Sudan, after the official announcement of southern leader John Garang’s death in an air crash, witnesses told AFP.

Southern Sudan’s vice-president and deputy chairman of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Salva Kiir Mayardit briefs the media after the death of Sudan’s First Vice-President and former rebel leader of SPLM John Garang in Nairobi, Kenya, August 1, 2005. (Reuters).

Thousands of southerners, alleging the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum may have had a hand in Garang’s death, attacked shops and other businesses in Juba owned by northern Arab Sudanese.

“They burned down all their shops,” Juba resident Mary Keji told AFP on the phone. “We can still see smoke rising from the city’s main market.”

The protesters ignored appeals by leaders of the former southern rebel group that Garang headed, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), and ransacked the town, vandalising property owned by Arab traders.

“They only targeted Arab businesses,” Keji said, adding that government forces intervened in a bid to restore order.

No casualties were immediately reported as the rioters appeared to spare residents and were only targeting Arab property.

Garang’s SPLM fought against successive governments in the north for more than two decades, demanding greater autonomy for the animist and Christian south from the Arab-dominated Muslim north.

He returned to Khartoum last July after a landmark north-south peace deal that saw him take up the post of first vice president in a national unity government with former archfoe President Omar al-Beshir.