Sudan to report on Garang’s death next month

Jan 23, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A final report into the air crash that killed Sudanese First Vice President John Garang, the former southern rebel, should be completed by the end of February, the head of the inquiry team said on Monday.

First Vice-President John Garang shakes hands with crew members as he boards an Ugandan helicopter at Entebbe International Airport on his way to meet Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni at his country home in Mbarara, western Uganda in July 29, 2005. (Reuters).

Garang’s death in a helicopter crash just three weeks after taking office in July sparked the worst riots in decades in the capital, claiming more than 100 lives in sectarian violence and stalling the peace deal he signed with the northern government to end more than two decades of civil war.

“We will probably be ready by the end of February,” Abel Alier told Reuters. “This will be the final report.”

Alier would not comment on the inquiry’s findings, but diplomats who have seen parts of the report said initial indications were that it was an accident.

Alier is a southerner and himself a former vice president. The investigation missed a deadline of one month after the crash to present a preliminary report, and has since delayed many times, prompting calls from southerners including Garang’s widow for more information.

Garang crashed in south Sudan, in territory controlled by his former rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). He was in the personal helicopter of his unversity friend, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

His death fuelled suspicions among southerners that the northern government would not honour the deal signed last year, which enshrines power and wealth-sharing, a coalition government and a referendum on secession in six years.

The bitter southern civil war — Africa’s longest — claimed more than 2 million lives and forced more than 4 million to flee their homes.

The top U.N. envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, has called for a quick but thorough investigation into Garang’s death to cool tensions between northern and southern communities.

Garang’s widow, Rebecca Garang, said she understood that one of the flight recorders was not rewound and the other did not have a world map.

“As a victim I need to know really what is happening,” she said. “I want to know how far they’ve gone,” she added.

(Reuters)