Sudanese president endorses new SPLM leader
JUBA, Sudan, Aug 4, 2005 (AP) — Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir Thursday issued a decree endorsing the new leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, his partner in the national unity government, paving the way for Salva Kiir Mayardit to take over as first vice-president.
Kiir was chosen by his group to take over as chairman of the SPLM and president of southern Sudan after his popular predecessor John Garang was killed Saturday in a helicopter crash in southern Sudan. His death set off riots in Khartoum and other cities that killed at least 130 people and injured more than 400, according to the Sudanese Red Crescent.
Police Thursday were rounding up suspects blamed in the violence. State media said more than 1,400 suspects were arrested in Khartoum. In Juba, the largest town in the south, police detained dozens of people suspected of looting from the Arab minority. The SRC said 13 people were killed there; residents counted 18.
Security forces took away two truckloads of people Thursday, said an eyewitness. “We don’t know where they have been taken,” she said.
Arab northerners, a minority who run many businesses, were targeted in two days of rioting by ethnic African southerners who blamed the government in the north for Garang’s death.
The SPLM appealed for calm, as did the president and opposition groups.
The violence “is against the values that Garang fought for – the values of liberation and building a new Sudan for all its people, regardless of race or religion,” SPLM spokesman Yasir Arman said by telephone from neighboring Kenya. “Confrontation is not in the interests of the SPLM. It is in the interest of enemies of SPLM.”
A joint statement by northern political parties – including the leading opposition Umma Party – and civil society groups said the tragedy of Garang’s death only reinforced their determination to work for the unity of Sudan.
“We reject any form of violence that would lead to the division of the public view at this juncture of history and we extend our hands for working together in cooperation for the prevalence of peace and security,” the statement said.
The violence raised concerns about the fragile north-south peace deal signed in January, which brought Garang to Khartoum as first vice president as part of the power and wealth-sharing agreement and raised hopes for peace throughout Sudan after decades of fighting. Leaders of the government and of the SPLM assured that they were committed to continuing the peace process.