Garang to form south Sudan’s government before heading to Khartoum

NAIROBI, Jan 8 (AFP) — John Garang, the rebel leader in southern Sudan who is to sign a final peace accord with Khartoum Sunday in Nairobi, said he plans to form a semi-autonomous government in the region after the ceremony before heading to Khartoum to take up the post of vice president.

Sudan’s People Liberation Army leader John Garang (R), flanked by his deputy Commander Salva Kiir Majardit, answers a question during an SPLA press conference in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, January 8, 2005. (Reuters).

“I command an army … and that cannot possibly go to Khartoum with me now,” he told a press conference in Nairobi, together with Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha and US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The first assignment of the National Liberation Council, the southern Sudan parliament, will be to ratify the peace agreement in order to pave the way for the creation of a semi-autonomous government and implementation of the accord, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) said Saturday.

“All this needs to be sorted out from the point of view of the SPLM/A. So I’ll be working for the time being from Rumbek … in order to sort these things out,” he said.

Rumbek will be the capital of the proposed southern government, before it relocates to Juba, according to the agreement.

Asked when he would settle in Khartoum to take up his post of vice president, Garang said: ” Khartoum is rather far from here but I want to assure you … that indeed I will go to Khartoum, I’ll go to Juba, I’ll go to all parts of my country.”

According to the peace deal, which Garang is due to sign on Sunday with Sudan’s President Omar el-Beshir, the rebel chief will be sworn as vice president immediately after the Sudanese national parliament passes a new constitution by February 20.

Under the deal, which has taken 10 years to negotiate, southern Sudan will vote in a referendum whether to remain united with the rest of Sudan or secede, after six years of self rule which will begin six months after the deal is signed.

War erupted in southern Sudan in 1983, when the rebels rose up against Khartoum, denouncing Arab and Muslim domination on the black, animist and Christian south.

The conflict has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced four million people.