Museveni devastated to attend Garanga’s burial

KAMPALA, Uganda, Aug 8, 2005 (PANA) — Uganda leader Yoweri Museveni stayed away from Saturday’s funeral of Sudan
First Vice President John Garang because he was
totally devastated by his death, Information minister
and government spokesman James Nsaba Buturo said in
statement here on Monday.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni(L) views the body of the late First Vice-President of Sudan John Garang in Yei, south Sudan, Friday 5, 2005. (AFP).

“After viewing Garang’s body at Sudan’s southern town
of Yei last Friday, the President (Museveni) returned
to Uganda the same day. He did not join other
presidents at the funeral service in Juba.

“So he thought it unwise for him not to attend the
burial. What he did (paying last respects) was
enough,” Buturo added.

“Imagine a situation where you have just been with
someone, given him your helicopter and manpower, then
he just perishes like that.

“The President is also thinking that supposing that
happened to him. He has not yet come to terms with
the loss,” Buturo explained as to why Museveni did
not attend the burial in Juba together with other
African leaders.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, Kenya’s Mwai
Kibaki, Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, Ethiopian
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and former Kenyan
President Daniel arap Moi attended the occasion.

Museveni told mourners in Yei, 80 km north of
Uganda’s northern remote border post of Oraba, where
he paid his last respects to the former SPLM/A rebel
leader, that the helicopter crash in which Garang was
killed might have been due to other causes.

Museveni’s remarks angered the Sudanese government,
diplomats and others in Sudan where there has been
fierce speculation that Garang was assassinated.

Anger over Garang’s death and conspiracy theories are
blamed for much of the deadly violence in Khartoum
and Juba that erupted after news of the fatal
helicopter crash broke.

Garang’s successor Salva Kiir said his government in
Southern Sudan and that of Khartoum is undertaking
full investigations of the crash.