Sudan peace process to continue
2005-08-01 11:12
Nairobi - The ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) said on Monday the death of its leader John Garang in a helicopter crash would not affect its commitment to a landmark January peace deal with Khartoum.
In a statement read to reporters at SPLM/A headquarters in the Kenyan capital following confirmation of Garang's death in the Saturday crash in southern Sudan, the group also urged all Sudanese to remain calm and said its leaders would be meeting in an emergency session to plot strategy.
Continuing Garang's vision
"I take this opportunity to assure the southern Sudanese in particular and the Sudanese people in general that we in the SPLM/A leadership will continue the vision and the objective of the movement that Dr John Garang has articulated and hoped to implement," the group's deputy commander Salva Kiiri.
"We also want to assure everyone the leadership and cadres of the SPLM/A will remain united and strive to faithfully implement the comprehensive peace agreement," he said.
"I call on all members of the SPLM/A and the entire Sudanese nation to remain calm and vigilant," Kiiri said, adding he was leaving immediately for the group's base at New Site in southern Sudan.
"In this regard, I have ordered the former members of the SPLM/A leadership council to assemble at New Site, Kapoeta County for an emergency meeting." he said.
"I am now on my way to New Site to join the rest of the leadership and the family of Dr Garang."
President determined to pursue peace process
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said on Monday he was determined to pursue the peace process despite the death of the country's first vice president and southern leader John Garang.
"We guarantee that the peace process will continue progressing in the same direction," Beshir said in an official statement announcing Garang's death.
The former rebel leader, who became vice-president just three weeks ago following a January peace deal ending two decades of north-south war, died in an air crash together with all passengers and crew on the way back from Uganda.
"His passing will only reinforce our determination to pursue the peace process he and his comrades had started with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement," said the statement read on public television.
"By announcing this terrible event, the president of the republic extends his condolences to the entire Sudanese people and the world for the death of a man who believed in peace and worked towards it with sincerity, determination," he said.
On January 9, Garang and vice-president Ali Osman Taha had signed the landmark peace deal that ended 21 years of civil war, the longest running in Africa.