Violence breaks out in Sudan after day of calm

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug 2, 2005 (AP) — Violence broke out for a second day in the Sudanese capital Tuesday after officials declared there was a “tense calm” after riots that killed 36 people.

Protestors carry a flag with the Sudanese colors and a poster of John Garang as they march through the streets of Khartoum, Sudan Tuesday Aug. 2, 2005. (AP).

The riots were sparked by the death in a helicopter accident of vice president and former southern rebel leader John Garang. His supporters claimed the government was responsible for his death.

In some neighborhoods heavily populated by southerners on the outskirts of the city, outsiders were attacking people in the streets and raiding homes, said William Ezekiel, managing editor of the Khartoum Monitor. He said at least people in southern Khartoum had been shot and killed.

“The Arabs are attacking them, entering their houses and looking for southerners,” said Ezekiel, whose newspaper focuses largely on southern issues.

He said the northerners were breaking into houses and trying “to dismantle anything southern.”

“It’s a reaction to the reaction from yesterday,” Ezekiel said. “Where is the government? Where are the police?”

A senior U.N. official in Khartoum said angry southerners from the displaced people’s camps outside the capital were converging on the area of Omdurman. He said a Muslim imam had been killed.

“The situation is turning religious and that will be even more dangerous,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorized to speak to the press.

The reports of deaths Tuesday couldn’t be independently confirmed.

The government renewed the 12-hour curfew of the night before, to begin at 6 p.m. local time. By 3:30 p.m., downtown streets were already practically empty. An occasional siren could be heard.

Tuesday’s violence and tension followed riots the day before, when grief-stricken supporters of Garang rampaged in Khartoum, burning cars and chasing people with stones, some accusing the government of killing Garang. The government responded with riot police and set a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Officials said 36 people were killed and approximately 300 more injured in Monday’s clashes. No information was available on how many of those killed were security forces and protesters.

Garang died Saturday along with 13 other people in a helicopter crash near the Sudanese-Ugandan border. The government and Garang’s own group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, ruled out foul play in his death.

Three days of national mourning were declared.

Garang will be buried Saturday in Juba, the planned capital of the future autonomous government of the country’s southern region, SPLM spokesman Yasir Arman said in neighboring Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

Garang’s body is lying at New Site, one of his former bases in southern Sudan. Arman said Garang’s body would be taken to key towns in southern Sudan to allow his supporters to pay their last respects before the state funeral in Juba, which he said would be attended by President Omar al-Bashir and other regional leaders and international representatives.