'We must wait for the bodies'

2005-08-04 13:49

Kampala - Uganda has been forced to postpone Thursday's national mourning ceremony for Ugandan victims of the weekend helicopter crash that killed Sudanese vice-president John Garang because Sudan has not yet turned over their bodies, officials said.

"The special mourning ceremony has been postponed because the bodies have not arrived yet," said information minister Nsaba Buturo, adding that the ceremony would be held "when burial arrangements have been finalised".

A foreign ministry official said the Sudanese were refusing to return the bodies of the eight Ugandans who died on the chopper because they were considered evidence in a pending investigation into what caused Saturday's crash.

"In aviation accident investigations, the bodies of the victims are exhibits," the officials said. "(The Sudanese) told us they could not release them yet."

Fourteen people, including Garang, five other officials with his Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army and the eight Ugandans, were killed when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's helicopter went down in poor weather in southern Sudan.

Both Sudan and Uganda have vowed a full probe into the crash, which officials insist was an accident and not deliberate sabotage or terrorism.

- AFP