Garang to be buried Saturday

Rebecca Nyandeng (R), the widow of John Garang, touches her late husband’s coffin covered with the Southern Sudan flag during a religious ceremony in New Site village August 2, 2005. (Reuters).

NEW SITE, Sudan, Aug 2 (AFP) — Ex-Sudanese rebel leader John Garang is to be buried on Saturday in Juba, the town he selected as the capital of an autonomous southern Sudan, his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army said Tuesday.

“The burial of our great leader will be in Juba on Saturday, the 6th of August,” SPLM spokesman Pagan Amum said, adding that Garang’s body would first be carried through several southern Sudanese towns.

“Juba is the site of the government of southern Sudan, the capital,” he told reporters here, explaining the choice of the site. “Juba is the second capital of the country.”

“We will invite our friends in the region and in the world to be with us,” Amum said. Garang’s body will be taken first on Friday to Rumbek and the town of Bor, from where the SPLM/A launched its struggle against Khartoum in 1983, he said.