The mysterious death of Garang and unaccomplished mission
By Watts Roba Gibia Nyirigwa*
Nov 22, 2005 — If anyone is following the circumstances of the Garang’s death at the helicopter crash on July 30, 2005, enormous questions and thoughts would be floating around his/her mind without any concrete answers. The devious surrounding conditions require a real miracle to discover the mysterious reasons for the helicopter crash. It is now four months and there was no any single indication as what exactly caused the crash. From the preliminary investigations, the FDR (flight data recorder) was blank, either it was fault or someone forgot to reset it! And from the retrieved conversation between Garang and the crew as per CVR (cockpit voice recorder), Garang was more concerned and worried and knew that crew was facing problems in navigation, and felt that there was something wrong with plane, and that was certain in his request to the pilot that if they would not be able to land safely at New Site, they could turn back and fly to Gulu or Soroti for the night! Pilot Peter Nyakairu assured that, they shall land safely and if not he shall let Garang know! But that never happened, instead boom and, that was the end of Garang! And from the retrieved conversations, it was evident that the aircraft have been flying blindly and all the modern sophisticated navigation instruments which was supposed to allow aircraft stand most serious weather conditions, as stated by Museveni, were not functioning, such as Advanced Moving Map System (AMMS) for locating the position of mountains, altimeter for measuring altitude and pilots were blind too and in complete dilemma and constantly consulting global positioning system and map.
The manufacturers of M1-172 helicopter asserted that after overhauling, aircraft has no fault, as per the two preliminary acceptance certificates signed by Ugandan officials. It has been confirmed that the aircraft had flown for 20 hours only after its overhaul! And this raises yet another query on the merit of the plane for the aviation! The manufacturers have placed the ball back to Ugandan playground, because the aircraft had not flown or tested enough to make this ill fated long flight to New Site. Since after receiving the chopper from manufacturers on July 21, 2005, it has been grounded till Garang flew it on July 29, 2005 to meet Museveni at his country home in Mbarara, and again on July 30, 2005 to meet his fate!
After listening to the retrieved recording and suggesting that the crash was probably an accident, both Ugandan and Sudanese probe officials felt relieved, because there was no evidence of the foul play! Obviously, alleviation and relieve on the faces of the Ugandan and Sudanese probe team upon hearing the record, does not yet avert the two countries responsibility whether directly or indirectly in the death of Garang. The deceased was First Vice President of Sudan, President of south Sudan and Chairman of SPLM and Commander-in-Chief of SPLA, and even though if his trip to Uganda was private, the Sudanese government has the responsibility to fly him to and from on special state chopper or presidential aircraft, and his security safety has to be guaranteed as a leader. Prior to the signing peace agreement, his security was solely the responsibility of SPLM/A which does not have enough resources to own special aircraft for their leader flight, but yet managed to survive, because he knows his enemies! On the other hand Ugandan government and Museveni, has to guarantee his VIP visitor and long life friend’s safety by taking more additional security precautions, particularly under the newly surrounding circumstances of peace in Sudan, enemies of Garang and peace, overhauled chopper and weather conditions. Those facts and risks have never been taken into consideration to safe guard Garang’s life, but rather his security was left loose and vulnerable from both countries.
In this context, everyone is anxiously looking forward to know the truth and the exact cause of the chopper crash, as whether it was due to weather condition or foul play or man fault or technical problem, still remains a mystery! And the blood and tears will never dry unless if the odd phenomenon and truth is revealed.
The death of Garang whether occurred on Sudan or foreign plane, yet has sent strong message to the SPLM leadership and the entire south Sudanese community. That message has been received correctly by South Africa, and that was patent in donating presidential aircraft to the south Sudan government. Another message from Garang’s death was that, security and protection of our leaders is most crucial importance which has to be taking seriously in every aspect to safe guard our leaders. I do not want even to think for a minute and believe that Southerners are incapable to govern and protect themselves, and are just ravenous leaders and politicians seeking political empowerment for their personal satisfaction. It is worth mentioning that, it is of vital importance and imperative to clean and rearrange our entire house before we could have a sound sleep! And it is most crucial importance to our advance, as there will be no commencing of building south Sudan unless if there is stability and safety in every corner of south Sudan.
It is utterly absurd to hanging the delay in implementation of peace deal on the death of Garang, as the two signatories of the peace agreement are institutions and not individuals, and that is clear in the peace agreement, and was made more apparent by Garang that this agreement/peace is not based on individuals but on institutions, and doesn’t belong to Garang or al-Bashir or Taha but to the Sudanese people. Thus, there was no point of white washing and misleading the people about the true circumstances in slow implementation of the peace deal as scheduled. People are desperate and in complete dilemma and they want to see the peace dividend and start feeling it in their day to day life, and they have the right to be informed and enlightened about the whole process in the implementation of peace deal.
Garang has gone, but his legacy remains for generations to come, as a patriotic Southerner, Leader and Sudanese who believes strongly that Sudan belongs equally to all the peoples that now inhabit the country and its history, its diversity and richness is the common heritage of all Sudanese. He said that, let us collectively go down in history as the generation of South Sudanese that turned Sudan around by putting an end to discrimination, racism, inequality, division, exploitation, and marginalization at best, and slavery and casual murder at worst, and unite to restore personal dignity for all. And I do not think that even those who differ with Garang in opinion will not deny and disagree with him on the fundamental vision of the equal opportunities to all Sudanese citizens regardless of gender, color, religion and ethnicity.
Garang has done his part, the next generation and history will account that to his gratitude and heroic stand. Thus, it is now our duty and responsibility to put the final touch, and accomplish the unfinished mission. And the history is eagerly longing to account that fact and pass it down to the next generation. The coming generation will never forgive us if we betrayed the course and failed to accomplish the mission and deliver them from the bondage of servitude to the freedom and living in dignity as masters in their own house.
Hence, to realize the vision and accomplish the mission, we have to build confidence and remove mistrust and restore fraternity and mutual respect among us, and forget our ethnic indifferences, and the abuse of power and not to give a room to wrong elements to disrupt our unity and entity. Every southerner has got the right to live in any part of southern Sudan, but it doesn’t constitute to enforce or imposition of group on another and repartition of the south Sudan ethnic landscape. The amalgamation of the ethnic groups has been there amicably with peaceful coexistence side by side for thousand of years, and not absolute assimilation, as each tribe has got its own style and ethics of living. And that is evident in all parts of the world, even among the civilized society, and God is not mistaken in setting those boundaries among its people since the creation of the universe. Therefore, we have bright future ahead and let us unite to realize our vision and to accomplish the mission.
* Watts Roba Gibia Nyirigwa, Cairo – Egypt. E-mail: [email protected]