36 killed in Sudan riots after vice president dies

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Grief-stricken supporters of a former Sudanese rebel leader tore through the capital in riots that left 36 people dead Monday, smashing cars and shops and angrily blaming the government for their hero’s death in a helicopter crash.

Despite doubts among the rioters, the southern rebel movement dismissed talk of a plot against Vice President John Garang and sought to keep alive the fragile north-south peace deal he championed for Sudan.

As the country reacted to Garang's death, southern Sudanese leaders moved swiftly to fill the vacuum left by his passing, choosing a close ally to succeed him, and announcing five days of mourning starting Tuesday.

Sudanese leaders appealed for calm and said the nation’s peace process would remain on track. But some southern Sudanese said they were suspicious about the circumstances of the death of Garang, who was a key figure in a fledgling peace deal between the predominantly Arab Muslim government and the Christian south.

Anti-riot police were deployed to several areas of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where crowds were pelting passers-by with stones and smashing car windows. At least 10 private and government-owned cars were set on fire. About 300 were injured in the riots. No information was available on how many of those killed were security forces and protesters.

Deputy named to vacant post
Garang's Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) stressed that the crash was an accident, not foul play, and quickly named Garang’s longtime deputy, Salva Kiir Mayardit, as new leader of the movement, and said it expected him to be sworn in, in two weeks, as Sudan’s first vice president.

“We definitely wanted to make the situation clear, we wanted no vacuum,” senior SPLM official Pagan Amun said in the organization's southern administrative base New Site, a sprawling compound with some unfinished buildings.

“We had to act swiftly and provide leadership,” he said.

Bush, Rice react
“The United States is determined to maintain our commitment to the peace process in Sudan,” President Bush said, hailing Garang as a “visionary leader and peacemaker.”

AFP / AFP - Getty Images file John Garang

Two senior State Department officials were heading for Sudan on Monday to tell leaders in Khartoum and southern Sudan that the death of Garang should not be allowed to slow the momentum toward a comprehensive peace.

“We certainly are looking for and hope to see an orderly and peaceful succession to the new first vice president,” said department press officer Tom Casey.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with Garang in Sudan just 10 days ago, called the former rebel leader “a man of great intellect and energy, and he applied those qualities to achieving a just peace for the people of Sudan.”

She credited him with helping to end the 22-year Sudanese war and offering the hope of democracy and a unified country.

Casey said he expects a high-level delegation will represent the United States at the funeral.

Violence in the south
The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said there were reports of violence in south Sudan and issued a reminder of its warnings to Americans to avoid non-essential travel to the country. There were no details on the southern violence.

The violence and widespread grief surrounding Garang’s death forced most in the capital to lock themselves inside their homes. Shop owners shuttered their stores.

“Murderers! Murderers!” yelled some southern Sudanese protesters who alleged the Sudanese government, which had battled Garang’s rebel force for two decades before this year’s peace deals, may have been behind the crash.

Garang aides react, huddle
“We lost Garang at a time when we needed him the most, but we think that we have made great strides toward peace and we believe that that peace process should continue,” said Garang aide Nihal Deng during an emergency Cabinet meeting.

Kiir said he called for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s top decision-making body to assemble for an emergency meeting. The SPLM became part of the national unity government on July 9, when Garang became vice president.

He was working with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and the second vice president to form a Cabinet by Aug. 9.

ENCARTA SUDAN: Maps, facts and figures

“Losing the brother, the doctor, is a huge loss. He is a true peace partner and he has played a big role,” el-Bashir said.

“We are confident that the peace agreement will proceed as it was planned and drawn up and that the future of Sudan will remain a trust in our hearts and the hearts of the brothers in the movement (SPLM),” he said in a televised statement.

Garang died when the helicopter he was flying in crashed into a mountain in southern Sudan in bad weather, killing him and the other 13 people on board, Sudan’s government said Monday.

Ugandan officials said Garang and the others were flying in one of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s personal helicopters.

In neighboring Kenya, groups of southern Sudanese men huddled to discuss Garang’s death. Nairobi has been the base for Garang’s movement, and is home to thousands of southern Sudanese.

One Sudanese man in Nairobi, Atem Maper, 30, said that younger southern Sudanese were suspicious of how Garang died. “People are worried that the war will continue,” Maper said. “They didn’t understand the way he died. We are going to see.”

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