New No. 2 in Sudan, an Ex-Rebel Leader, Dies in Copter Crash
By MARC LACEY
Published: August 1, 2005

NAIROBI, Kenya, Monday, Aug. 1 - A helicopter carrying John Garang, a longtime rebel leader and newly installed vice president of Sudan, went down over the weekend, killing Mr. Garang, as it flew through inclement weather from nothern Uganda to southern Sudan, officials said. Newly installed vice president of Sudan John Garang was killed in a helicopter crash during the weekend.

"There is something that has been found," Lt. Col. Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan military spokesman, said Monday morning after a frantic search operation wasbegun for the wreckage of the Ugandan military helicopter that carried Mr. Garang.

There had been confusion as to his fate after Sudan's state television said the helicopter had landed safely in a camp in southern Sudan. But early Monday Ugandan officials said that they had located the wreckage and that there were no survivors. An official announcement was expected later Monday.

It was just three weeks ago that Mr. Garang was sworn in as vice president, a historic moment that drew in excess of a million people to the streets of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. He had headed a rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, that had fought since 1983 to topple the Sudanese government.

Mr. Garang's played such a pivotal role in the peace agreement signed in January, bringing an end to the 21-year-long civil war in Sudan, that his death was seen as a serious setback. He had been instrumental in keeping southern rebels together and had survived many attempts on his life. "Losing John Garang is very shocking news," said Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a retired Kenyan general who led the peace talks and was informed of Mr. Garang's death by associates this morning. "He was an extraordinary person. This whole process will not be the same."

The question of succession remains uncertain. Officials said there was no sign of foul play in Mr. Garang's death.

Mr. Garang had been flying home late Saturday from an official visit with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. He was en route to his base in southern Sudan in a Ugandan military helicopter when Ugandan authorities lost track of the craft, said Lt. Col. Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan military spokesman.

Mr. Garang had arrived in Uganda on Friday afternoon and flew to Mr. Museveni's country house in Rwakitura, nearly 200 miles southeast of Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
The leaders, who have long been allies, discussed the war in northern Uganda in which rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army have terrorized the local population, often making raids from bases in southern Sudan. Mr. Garang had said he intended to force those rebels to leave Sudan.

To seal the peace agreement, Mr. Garang was sworn in on July 9 as vice president of Sudan, after having led a rebellion against Sudan's Islamist government in Khartoum since 1983. He was sworn in by President Omar al-Bashir, the man he had tried to topple.

Under the power-sharing agreement, Mr. Garang held a position in the national government and governs southern Sudan. Residents of the south will vote in a referendum in six years to determine whether they want to secede from the rest of the country.

Unrelated to the southern rebels, fighting continues in eastern Sudan and the western region of Darfur.