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.
The 60-year-old Garang, who had been Sudan’s first vice president for just three weeks, died Saturday along with 13 other people when their helicopter crashed into a mountain in southern Sudan in bad weather.
His Sudan People’s Liberation Movement stressed that the crash was an accident, not foul play, and quickly named Garang’s longtime deputy, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to succeed him as head of the movement and as president of south Sudan, spokesman Yasser Arman told The Associated Press.
Kiir likely will also be first vice president, according to the January peace agreement that says whoever is the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leader will hold that position, said Kenyan Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a mediator in the peace talks.
On July 9, Garang was inaugurated into a national unity government that was seen as the key to bringing comprehensive peace to Sudan.
He was working with the president and second vice president to form a Cabinet by Aug. 9.
President Bush called Garang a “visionary leader and peacemaker” and said the United States remained committed to Sudan’s peace process.
In a statement, Kiir promised that the leadership “will continue the vision and the objectives of the movement that Dr. John Garang De Mabior has articulated and hoped to implement.”
Garang had been welcomed by more than a million people from all regions of Sudan when he returned to Khartoum on July 8 for the first time since his rebellion began in 1983.
