Sudan arabs flee southern town after riots on VP’s death

JUBA, Sudan, Aug 3, 2005 (AP) — Sudanese Arabs were fleeing the southern town of Juba Wednesday after a two-day rampage by southerners, burning Arab-owned shops and homes, that killed at least 18 people in the wake of the death of a popular rebel leader, witnesses said.

An office of the Sudan People’s Liberation is seen destroyed at Haj Yousif town in Khartoum, Sudan Wednesday, Aug. 3,2005. (AP).

Heavy police and army patrols circulated in the otherwise empty dirt roads of Juba on Wednesday. Shops and an outdoor market were burned to the ground, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

The violence broke out in the wake of the death of John Garang, the charismatic leader of rebels who for 21 years fought against the domination of mostly Christian and animist southern Sudan by the Khartoum government in the mainly Muslim Arab north.

Garang died in a helicopter crash Saturday night, three weeks after he became vice president under a peace deal that calls for a power-sharing government between north and south.

The government and Garang’s own Sudan People’s Liberation Movement say the crash was an accident but outraged southerners – some believing the government was behind the death – have rioted in Khartoum, Juba and other cities. Around 75 people were killed in violence in Khartoum on Monday and Tuesday.

In Juba, 1,200 kilometers south of the capital, angry southerners attacked Arab-owned shops and homes Monday and Tuesday, chasing northerners through the streets and killing northerners, witnesses said.

Juba, a main front in the long civil war, is a garrison town for the northern Sudanese military. But it appeared the military and police held back from stopping rioters for fear of inflaming tensions with southerners in the town.

Juba is the biggest town in the south with a population of some 350,000, most of them southerners – who are ethnic Africans, mainly Christians and animists. The town is surrounded by SPLM forces and is supplied from the north by air.

But the Arab Muslim minority holds most of the main businesses. Many of them were now fleeing. At Juba’s airport, dozens of Arabs – mostly men – were lined up with baggage for flights back to Khartoum. Women and families appeared to have already left.

Juba is key in the north-south peace agreement. The town is due to become the capital of the autonomous southern region. The central government is supposed to reduce its military presence and allow the SPLM’s fighters to enter as a force parallel to the military.

Garang, whose body is currently at a SPML base called New Site, is due to be buried in Juba Saturday, and President Omar al-Bashir has announced he will attend.