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2005-08-01
Juba and Khartoum rocked by riots, looting
Looting, armed clashes in Sudanese capital, Arabs attacked in Juba after Garang's death.
By Mohammed Ali Saeed - KHARTOUM

The Sudanese capital was the scene of riots, looting and armed clashes on Monday following the death of southern leader John Garang, which people feared could plunge the country into a fresh period of turmoil.

Thousands of angry men armed with knifes and guns took to the streets of downtown Khartoum immediately after Garang's death in an air crash was announced early Monday, an AFP correspondent reported.

They converged on southern residential neighbourhoods, where most of the violence appeared to be taking place. Several people were seen lying on the ground, some possibly dead.

"I saw southerners throwing stones at people on the street and at houses," said Osama Abdelrahman, a 22-year-old student.

"We stood up to them and traded blows using sticks and stones," said Abdelrahman speaking from Khartoum's southern residential neighbourhood of Al-Dium al-Sharqia.

"This rioting will certainly affect the peace agreement. The northerners will not be enthusiastic about the agreement anymore," he added.

Garang, killed in a helicopter crash Saturday, had returned to Khartoum last month, after decades in the bush, following a landmark north-south peace deal that ended 21 years of a north-south civil war that left two million people dead.

He became first vice president only three weeks ago, when Sudan kicked off a six-year interim period during which his former rebel movement and the government in Khartoum were due to form a national unity government and at the end of which the south was to decide on independence.

Other Khartoum residents complained they were being targeted by angry Garang supporters when they had nothing to do with his death in a helicopter crash in Sudan's Amatonj mountains near the border with Uganda.

"Garang died in an accident, in the south, coming from Uganda. What has the north got to do with it?" protested 55-year-old restaurant owner Omar Ibrahim.

In Juba, the main town in southern Sudan, rioters vandalised Arab property, accusing the regime of President Omar al-Beshir of having engineered Garang's assassination.

"We took refuge inside our house when the riots broke out but the southerners kept hurling stones at us," said Ramzi Tadrus, a 60-year-old Coptic Christian man from southern Kharthoum al-Ghali residential area.

"They went on to burn stores but fire trucks came too late to put out the fire," he said. "Why did this happen, what did we do wrong? We're not responsible for the death of Garang."

Burning cars could be seen on one street and footage aired by the Al-Jazeera news network showed some people were wounded in the unrest.

Ali Said said he was on his way to Khartoum's university when two knife-wielding men attempted to attack him.

"I ran as fast I could. I thank God I managed to escape death," the 20-year-old man.

Police were hardly seen on the streets.

"Very serious incidents are taking place right now in Khartoum with bursts of Kalashnikov fire and burning cars," a European diplomat based in Khartoum said earlier on Monday.

He said roadblocks had been set up throughout the city and that access to the airport had been blocked since morning.

Bridges across the two branches of the Nile which meet in Khartoum were all closed, and schools and public buildings shut.

The US embassy in Khartoum issued a statement urging US citizens "to avoid all non-essential travel to Sudan at this time and those within Sudan are advised to stay indoors in a safe area due to disturbances in Khartoum and the suburbs."

Beshir vowed "the peace process will continue progressing in the same direction," in an official statement read on public television early Monday.

A senior Garang's aide, Nhial Deng Nhial said: "We will miss Dr Garang dearly, we would have needed him very much right now. But we are committed to the implementation of the peace agreement."