Guerilla turned statesman

Published : Aug 26, 2005 00:00 IST

KHALIL SENOSI/AP

KHALIL SENOSI/AP

John Garang, 1945-2005

JOHN GARANG spent 22 years fighting a guerilla war against the central government in Khartoum. Unfortunately, Garang could last only 22 days in office as Vice President of the country. Garang died in a helicopter crash near the border with Uganda while returning back to Khartoum, after a meeting with his close ally and long-time friend, Yoweri Museveni, the President, of Uganda. The Russianmade Mi-17 helicopter he was travelling in, was part of the Ugandan President's personal fleet. Six of Garang's associates were also killed in the crash along with six crewmembers.

It was the first of his scheduled visits abroad after taking office. Garang may have chosen Uganda as his first port of call because of his close friendship with Museveni. According to observers, Museveni wanted the urgent help of Garang and the Sudanese government in bringing to heel the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA operates along the Sudan-Uganda border. Despite the best efforts of the Ugandan security forces, the fanatical force continues to operate with impunity. Garang had planned to go to Nairobi to thank the Kenyan government for its role in the peace talks. that led to an agreement to end that ended Africa's longest running civil war, which had claimed more than two million lives and displaced more than three million people in Sudan.

Garang was the undisputed leader of the Southern Sudanese people. At the time of his death, he seemed to be turning into a statesman with the capability of emerging as the leader of a united Sudan. After the new of Garang's death filtered in, there were widespread riots in the capital Khartoum. Khartoum is home to more than three million people from southern Sudan. Many of them believed that Garang's death was a result of a conspiracy hatched by those in the Sudanese establishment who were against the peace deal and the concessions made to the South.

The riots in Khartoum lasted for more than three days resulting in more than 130 deaths and widespread damage to property. The leadership of the Southern Sudanese Liberation Movement (SPLM) was quick to issue a statement saying that it did not suspect any foul play in the death of its leader. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan while condoling the death of Garang said that all indications were that his death was due to an accident. Museveni has ordered a high level inquiry into the causes leading to the helicopter crash.

IT was only after protracted peace talks lasting many years that a comprehensive peace agreement could be signed between the government in Khartoum and the SPLM, headed by Garang, in January, 2005. The agreement emphasised that Sudan was a pluralist and multi-ethnic country. That It had paved the way for Garang to assume the post of First Vice President in the Sudanese government. Under the agreement, Garang was to share power with President Omar Bashir and the Second Vice President, Ali Osman Taha.

As Vice President, Garang was given complete charge of running the affairs of southern Sudan, which abounds in mineral wealth, including huge oil deposits. Oil revenues and resources are to be shared equally between the North and the South. The peace agreement provides for a referendum in the South on the issue of independence. On assuming officeGarang had said his first priority would be to solve the problem in Darfur. He also emphasised that he stood irrevocably for the unity of the country.

Big crowds greeted Garang when he came to formally assume his Vice-President's post in Khartoum in July in early July. Millions of residents in Khartoum, Muslim as well as Christian, had turned up at a public stadium, to listen to him. Many northerners, disillusioned with the established parties as well as the present government looked to him to provide leadership. Sudan is scheduled to go in for elections in four years. According to observers, Garang could have emerged as a viable candidate for the presidency, given his wide acceptability. As part of the peace deal, the Sudanese constitution was amended to allow non-Muslims to hold the top post. One of the important reasons for the South's alienation was the promulgation of Sharia law in the North.

According to Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, the Sudanese Ambassador in India, Garang always swore by the unity of Sudan while many of his other associates in the struggle against the central government in Khartoum, were openly calling for secession from the North. Garang was aware that given the nature of politics in the South (which has hundreds of dialects and tribes), it would be difficult to maintain the faade of unity in the SPLM for long. The SPLM has in the last two decades split into many factions, though the grouping led by Garang remained dominant throughout. It was because of Garang's persona and international stature that the South could speak at the negotiating table in one voice. Besides, it is well known that it was the Bush administration which brokered the peace agreement.

GARANG, who was fluent in Arabic, English and Dinka, had hoped to lead Sudan as head of a progressive government in the eighties. He had a Ph.D in Agricultural Economic from the Iowa State University in the US. He founded the Southern Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) in 1983. He was a full colonel in the Sudanese army but deserted and raised the banner of revolt against the erratic rule of President Jaffar Nimeiry, who had not honoured an earlier peace agreement with the South. Garang was sent down to the South to quell a rebellion in 1982 but stayed on to emerge as the new guerilla leader of the South. He belonged to the Dinka tribe, which is numerically the biggest in the south.

In the eighties, Garang called himself a revolutionary and openly flaunted his Marxist leanings. He along with Museveni looked to the radical leaders in the African continent and the East Bloc for support. The former President of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam provided Garang and the SPLM with logistical and political support. Those were heady days in the African continent. The decolonisation process was in its final throes. Revolutionary regimes had replaced colonial powers in Angola and Mozambique.

However with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the overthrow of in the early nineties, Garang changed tack. -He did not waste much time in switching allegiance to Washington and the new rulers who emerged in the Horn of Africa. Washington at the time was busy destabilising the left wing governments on the continent and had tasted first blood in Ethiopia.

From the early nineties, Garang developed a strong rapport with Christian Churches and right-wing groups in the US and Europe. Christian missionary groups have been very active in highlighting the cause of the SPLM on the global stage. The Islamist influence on the government in Khartoum in the nineties coupled with the strong linkages Sudan had with countries like Iran and Iraq at that time, gave successive American administrations the rationale to prop up Garang and the SPLA, militarily and financially. THE SPLA, under Garang, has been accused by many human rights groups of serious human rights violations in the South, especially against non-Dinka ethnic groups. Garang himself was known for his authoritarian ways and was known to have suppressed dissent. Many of his close associates complained that he never took them into confidence while negotiating the peace deal with Khartoum.

Among those who were openly bitter about Garang's style of functioning is the new SPLM chief, Salva Kiir Mayardit. In fact, before Garang's death there were indications that the two had fallen apart. Salva Kiir, not very enthusiastic about the concept of a united Sudan, had openly criticised the peace deal. However Kiir has been quick to reiterate that he will stick to the path Garang embarked upon. He will also be assuming the post of Vice President of the country.

Silva Kiir is a long-serving military strategist of the SPLA and has been with Garang from the beginning. His military exploits have made him a popular figure in the South. Like Garang, he too was originally in the Sudanese army. Interestingly, Salva Kiir, when asked about the need for "one Sudan", after Garang's demise, said that "Let us cross the bridge when we reach it". He was referring to the referendum on the issue of a united Sudan, which is due to be held in six years. The American ambassador in Khartoum was quick to meet with Salva Kiir. The Bush administration wants the peace process in Sudan to continue for the time being at least. The fear is that with Garang gone, the secessionists in Sudan will again get the upper hand.

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