Salav Kiir forms first southern Sudan cabinet

Oct 23, 2005 KHARTOUM) — The president of the new government of southern Sudan has formed his first cabinet since a peace deal between former southern rebels and the northern government, and it includes the widow of former rebel leader John Garang.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit announced the formation of the Cabinet on Sunday, said Radio Juba, monitored in Khartoum.

Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, negotiated the January peace agreement with the Sudanese government that ended more than 20 years of civil war, Africa’s longest war. He was killed in a helicopter crash in July.

His widow, Rebecca de Mabior, has been one of the leaders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, the political wing of SPLA. She will take the post of minister of roads and transportation.

The January peace accord provided for an autonomous south with its own army, national power and wealth-sharing, religious freedom and a new constitution during a six-year interim period. After those six years, the 10 southern states will hold a referendum on independence.

Sudan also has a unity government, in which Kiir now serves as first vice president, in addition to his post as the south’s president.

The new Cabinet is expected to be sworn in Monday in Juba, the main city in southern Sudan, the radio said.

The radio said the names of two other ministers for Army affairs and for rural cooperation and development will be added later to the 20-member Cabinet.

The Cabinet also includes the vice president of the southern government, Rick Machar, who will become the minister of housing and lands.

Samson Kwaje, SPLA’s spokesman, becomes the minister of information while SPLM official Nhial Deng was named minister of regional cooperation.

According to the January peace agreement, the southern government Cabinet includes 70% from the SPLM, 15% from the northern ruling National Democratic Party of President Omar el-Bashir and 15% from other southern parties.

As part of the peace deal, Garang was sworn in, in July to the post of first vice president in the country’s unity government, second only to el-Bashir. Only weeks afterward, Garang was killed on July 30 in a helicopter crash in the south, sparking angry riots by southerners and shaking hopes for peace.

Garang’s party deputy, Kiir, was quickly put in place as first vice president and as president of the new southern autonomous zone.

(AP/ST)