Posted on Wed, Aug. 03, 2005


North, South Sudan continue to clash


Associated Press

Frightened residents carried clubs and bricks for protection Tuesday, fearful of deadly reprisal violence between Muslim Arabs and residents from Sudan's south enraged over the death of the former rebel leader who was their hero.

Armed gangs, said to be Arabs, broke into homes of southerners in several parts of the capital.

At the same time, Muslim neighborhoods came under attack by supporters of John Garang, who led a two-decade rebellion in Sudan's mostly Christian and animist south before becoming the country's vice president in a peace deal. Garang died Saturday when his helicopter crashed into a southern mountain range in bad weather.

At least 49 people were killed over two days, according to a U.N. official, though the number was not officially confirmed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

Television footage showed southerners' homes torn apart, furniture smashed and doors hanging on hinges. In some neighborhoods, southern men carried sticks and bricks, saying they had heard that northerners were coming and they needed to protect themselves.

The death of Garang ruptured the long coexistence in Khartoum between northerners and the nearly 2 million southerners who live in squatter neighborhoods in the city and in four massive refugee camps on its outskirts.

Violence between the communities has been uncommon, even during the 21-year civil war between Garang's rebels and the Khartoum government, which is dominated by Muslim Arabs. The war was fought hundreds of miles to the south and drove thousands of southerners to the capital.

Garang's death came only three weeks after he was named first vice president and joined the government that had long been his enemy, part of a peace deal celebrated throughout the conflict-torn country.

The government and Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement insist the crash was an accident and have been trying to bring calm by promising that the peace process will continue.

But southerners rampaged in Khartoum on Monday, many blaming the government for Garang's death. The rioting left 36 dead, according to the government. On Tuesday, the violence turned ethnic and sectarian, with both northerners and southerners staging attacks.

Throughout the day, tribal leaders - who have more influence than government officials with many people - appealed for calm in TV and radio messages.

Minimal police presence was seen on the streets in the morning, despite the violence the day before, and it wasn't until afternoon that riot police and soldiers deployed larger units. In the evening, some neighborhoods that had seen trouble were filled with a heavy military presence.

In the meantime, Garang's body will be taken to key towns in the south to allow supporters to pay their respects before heading to Juba.





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