Body of Sudan ex-rebel leader arrives for funeral

JUBA, Sudan, Aug 6 (AFP) — A plane carrying the coffin of late Sudanese vice president and ex-rebel leader John Garang arrived here Saturday as thousands of mourners gathered for his funeral, an AFP correspondent said.

Garang’s body was flown in from the town of Rumbek, its last stop in an airborne funeral procession through southern towns key to his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s (SPLM) 21-year war with Khartoum.

The coffin, draped in the flag of New Sudan, Sudan’s southern region that will enjoy six years of autonomy under a landmark January peace deal negotiated by Garang, was to be brought to Juba’s All Saint’s Cathedral for a funeral service.

Some 500,000 people, including presidents Omar al-Beshir of Sudan, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, were expected to attend the funeral and witness Garang’s burial at a hastily constructed mausoleum in a nearby field.

Other dignitaries at the service include Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, African Union commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi and USAID director Andrew Natsios.