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Sudan Archives
On John Garang (of the Sudan)
On John Garang (of the Sudan)
August 7, 2005
(Sudan Archive)
The war in Sudan's southern provinces came to an end recently with the signing of a power-sharing agreement by the government of Omar Bashir in Khartoum, and his longtime enemy, John Garang of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA; All Africa, BBC). This peace agreement was outlined in more comprehensive detail in the International Crisis Group's Paper, "The Khartoum-SPLM Agreement" (PDF). Yet as SPLM Chairman John Garang was sworn in as 1st Vice-President on 9 July, implementation lags badly. The main obstacles are the old regime's lack of will to embrace genuine power sharing and elections, and ultimately allow a southern self-determination referendum after the six-year interim period and lack of capacity in the South to establish and empower basic structures of governance. To keep the accords on track, the international community must focus on broadening participation and transparency, particularly handling of oil revenues, promote SPLM dialogue with the government-allied militias and quickly deploy the UN peace support mission, whose monitoring operations will be key to breaking the links between Khartoum and those southern proxies. Still, the fighting has stopped, ending a war that began in 1983 between the mostly Christian or Animist southerners, and the Islamicist state based in Khartoum. This war is estimated by the BBC to have killed 1.5 million Sudanese, and obviously contributed to the extreme poverty that grips the nation.
Garang, a Sudanese officer who defected to lead the SPLA rebellion (BBC), was forgiven for his old treason and made 1st Vice President under the deal. On the 9th of July he was inaugurated; three weeks later he was dead, killed in a trip to Uganda when his helicopter went down (All Africa).
The immediate reaction has been, naturally, allegations that the crash was not an accident (All Africa, Washington Times), and a massive riot in Khartoum that killed at least 84 (All Africa). Meanwhile, the Eastern insurgents and the Darfur rebels are quite hostile to the agreement: International Crisis Group-PDF: The NDA's negotiations with the government, the peculiar "suspended" agreement, and the last moment participation in the Commission have been controversial within the organisation. The Darfur rebels and east Sudan insurgents distanced themselves. The latter reignited the eastern front days after the Cairo ceremony by attacking several government garrisons in the region and abducting government troops. The second largest NDA Party, the Sudan Communist Party, vehemently denounced the Cairo accord and said it would not join the new government even if the NDA did. The discomfited NDA leadership instructed exiled cadres to return to Sudan and join the political process but the chairman and other top figures declared they would not return until the two pending issues were settled. More broadly, the NDA continues to stress the need to restructure the army, civil service, judiciary and security services along national, nonpartisan principles.
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The death of Garang probably does not bode especially well for the Sudanese government. Some no doubt hated Garang personally, for betraying his colleagues in the Army and his oath of service; but the ruling party faces the real risk of political disintegration if the elections go forward as scheduled, in 2009. That's because Garang's rule had so personally concentrated power that he could have made virtually any deal or compromise his colleagues needed, once in office, to prevent an actual electoral challenge. Now, his successor is unlikely to be able to prevent the splintering of factions in a campaign.
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