Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005
Sudan is expected to swear in a new vice president within two weeks after the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) acted swiftly and named a new leader to take over from John Garang, officials said on Tuesday.
The former rebel leader was killed in a helicopter crash over the weekend, just three weeks after becoming vice president as part of January peace deal to end the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.
SPLA leaders meeting in southern Sudan unanimously agreed that Salva Kiir, who was the group's deputy chairman, would replace Mr Garang.
Filling the vacuum created by Mr Garang's death was deemed crucial to ensuring the stability of SPLA.
"We are managing the situation and there's no vacuum," Pa'gan Amum, a senior member of the SPLA, said by telephone from southern Sudan. "The meeting of the leadership has shown a strong sense of unity."
Mr Kiir, who has a background in military intelligence and was one of the original members of the movement when the war erupted in 1983, now faces the daunting challenge of holding the south together and implementing the peace deal.
Mr Garang became vice president on July 9 in the first step towards the formation of a transitional government. He was a key architect of the accord and regarded as vital to its success.
Many Sudanese and diplomats hoped the deal would also help end Sudan's other problems, including a separate rebellion in the western region of Darfur and unrest in eastern Sudan.
The news of Mr Garang's death sparked riots by thousands of southern Sudanese in Khartoum. At least 36 people were reportedly killed in Monday's clashes, and there were reports of fresh violence yesterday.
"Sudan has never been stable, so it is no less stable or no more stable. What is new is that we have big city riots, that had to be expected at a certain moment," Jan Pronk, the UN envoy in Khartoum, told the Financial Times. "People are frustrated their big hope now died, so you had frustration and anger."
Even when Mr Garang was alive, the challenges of implementing the agreement were massive, with potential spoilers on all sides and questions about the SPLA's capacity to transform itself from a guerrilla movement into a functioning administration.
The initial task facing Mr Kiir, who is better known as a soldier than a politician, will be ensuring the SPLA, which has often been plagued by tribal and regional rivalries, remains united.
"It will be difficult for anybody to put himself in the footsteps of Garang," Mr Pronk said. "However, Salva Kiir is one of the few who always stayed with him. so he can be seen as somebody who was one of the confidants from the very beginning and people know that and it's very important. He is also a commander in the field, his strength is the south itself, he knows the south inside out and he controls the military."
Although criticised for his autocratic leadership, Mr Garang was recognised for his charisma and ability to hold the rebel movement together. Crucially, he also earned the respect of the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Sayed al-Khatib, director of the government's Centre for Strategic Studies and one of Khartoum's negotiators during the peace process, said it was crucial the government "extend every possibility" to help Mr Kiir "fill these big shoes."
"It's stating the obvious when you say Salva Kiir is not John Garang in terms of stature, charisma or ability, and just because of that one would feel that the peace process is going to suffer," he said
The SPLA took up arms against the Muslim north in a bid to gain a greater share of power and wealth for the impoverished, largely animist and Christian south.
At the end of the six-year transition southerners will vote on whether to secede.
Mr Garang supported unity, saying he wanted a nation in which all religions and races were treated equally. Mr Kiir has said he will pursue Mr Garang's vision, but is regarded as pro-secession.
Andrew England in Nairobi
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2005. Privacy policy.
