Garang plane probe team resumes work in Uganda

Dec 8, 2005 (KAMPALA) — After nearly a month of recess, the commission of inquiry into the July helicopter crash that killed Sudan’s former first vice-president John Garang and 13 others has resumed work in Entebbe, some 40 km south of Kampala, according to local press on Thursday.

Contrary to earlier expectation that the commission’s preliminary report would soon be out, Ugandan Minister for Works John Nassasira told journalists on Wednesday that technical experts were still making inquires.

“The technical team is still making inquires and thereafter, write up a preliminary report on stage one.

We will made it public but the final report will come out at the end of the probe, which will take months, ” Nassasira said.

The probe team is comprised of experts from Uganda, the United States, Kenya, the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army.

The minister said there would be no public hearing of testimonies. He said further inquires were also being made on the wreckage of the presidential helicopter that crashed in the Imatong Mountain region on July 30.

Garang was killed on his way back to southern Sudan after his visit to Uganda when Ugandan presidential helicopter crashed in the Imatong Mountain region in southern Sudan on July 30, 2005.

(Xinhua/ST)