Religious Leaders Told Not to Inflame Tensions in Sudan Garang Funeral
Sudan is preparing for the funeral of leader John Garang, which will take place on Saturday, and currently the body is being transported back to Juba, stopping on the way on a tour of the main southern towns, reaching Juba this evening.
Just three weeks after being named vice-president, which was seen as an opening of a new era in a deal to end the 21-year civil war, Garang was killed in a helicopter crash last Saturday near the Sudan-Kenya border.
Hundreds of people, many weeping uncontrollably, have come to say farewell to Garang as a plane arrives to bring the coffin into each major town.
In preparation for the funeral, in Juba thousands of volunteers have been helping to build a mausoleum to contain the corpse, reported AFP news agency.
After Garang’s death, huge riots and clashes were observed in the town, with northern Arab traders being attacked and their goods looted by angry southerners. Nineteen have been reportedly killed and a shortage of food has now engulfed the city.
Officials have said that a huge crowd is expected to attend the funeral, with several African heads of state coming to pay their respects.
Riak Machar, who is one of Garang’s former colleagues told a Kurmuk crowd, “We have to keep his [Garang's] promise. We have to implement the peace agreement.”
The grand funeral procession will today see the coffin go to Yei and then onto Bor, where the rebellion originated from in 1983, and then onto his birthplace of Panyagol, before reaching Jaba this evening.
Salva Kiir has been appointed as Garang’s successor as the southern leader, and also as national vice-president.
The BBC reports that Khartoum appears to be calm, and no further reports of clashes between southerners and Arabs have been made.
Immediately after the announcement of Garang’s death, more than 130 people across the country were killed over three days of serious violence and fighting. In response, the government imposed an overnight curfew, and sent out heavily-armed police and soldiers to patrol the streets for further outbreaks.
In a country with a clear divide between the majority-Muslim north, and the predominantly-Christian south, a Sudanese minister has come out to urge religious leaders not to inflame the heightened tensions on the country.
Religious Affairs Minister, Kamal Sid-Ahmad said, “This directive is to the imams of mosques: You must prevent discord - if that is what it is you are doing.”
The sudden death of one of the figure-heads of the peace deal agreed earlier this year sparked violence across the country, and this has caused all sides to worry about the vital peace deal progressing.
Realistically, many critics have said that the rapid deterioration of relations across the country could shatter the much-publicised peace deal created to end the longest civil war in the country’s history.
Kiir said, “Enemies of peace may want to take the opportunity of the situation so that they don't allow the government and the SPLM to implement the peace agreement. We want this situation to be stopped as soon as possible so that security returns to Khartoum and its suburbs.”
The Secretary General Anglican Communion sent his "deepest sympathy and prayers" to the Archbishop of the Sudan in a press release issued Friday.
The Rev Canon Kenneth Kearon said in the statement: "It is our prayer that John Garang's vision and his strategy for reconciliation and mutual respect be one that will in the end see the fulfilment of his dream for the implementation of peace in Sudan for all its people."
It continued: "We have been particularly concerned as news of civil unrest reaches us. We pray for all who have been injured or are fearful at this time and we hope that calm can be restored and work move forward to lasting peace for this great nation."
