Sudanese president receives report on compensations of Garang crash

May 14, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — President Omer al-Bashir has received the final report of the technical committee for revising the estimations of compensations for the citizens affected by the incidents that followed the death of the former First Vice-President John Garang.

Following his meeting with al-Bashir on Saturday, the chairman of the committee, Abdelwahab Ahmed Hamza, said that the committee held 16 meetings in more than two months to revise numbers accurately and to compare it with the numbers of the federal committee.

He pointed out that 40% of the sums which the affected citizens presented to have been approved and would be paid in the coming period.

Pilot error was to blame for the helicopter crash that killed Sudanese First Vice President John Garang last year as he flew home from Uganda, the final report into the accident by Uganda and Sudan said on Tuesday 18 April 2006.

“We think the pilot was trying to keep below the clouds because of bad weather, yet he was coming into high terrain,” Ugandan Works Minister John Nasasira told reporters in Kampala while releasing the report.

Garang was travelling in Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s helicopter last July when it crashed into a hill in southern Sudan, killing all 14 passengers.

(ST)