SPLM - a year after Garang

Several people in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba still pay their respects every day at the grave of John Garang de Mabior, former leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), a year after his death. Buried at the top of the hill, Garang lies symbolically between the new parliament of southern Sudan and the army barracks, in a grave guarded by SPLA soldiers. "Many people expected the SPLM to disintegrate with the death of our late chairman; that did not happen," said Pagan Amum, Secretary-General of the movement. "Many people thought that even the interim period would not happen; what happened was the contrary." Garang died in a helicopter crash on 30 July 2005 while flying back to his base in southern Sudan from a meeting with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. The MI-72 Ugandan presidential helicopter carrying him and 13 other people came down in bad weather on the Sudan-Uganda border. Observers say the man who founded the SPLM/A, but died three weeks after taking office as the First Vice-President of Sudan and President of Southern Sudan, remains a colossus in the south. As the undisputed leader of the former southern rebel movement and architect of the January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the SPLM/A and the northern National Congress Party that ended the 21-year southern civil war, the impact of his sudden death on Sudan was bound to be significant. The peace accord provided for a six-year period of interim rule headed by a government of national unity (GNU). After this interim period, the south would hold a referendum to decide whether to remain part of a united Sudan or to break away o form a separate state. When riots erupted around the country following the news of his death - leaving approximately 130 dead - many feared the disintegration of the SPLM/A, the collapse of the CPA and a return to civil war. A year later, however, Garang’s legacy proves remarkably resilient. "His death affected the entire process of transition very seriously," Amum said. "Losing such a great leader, who was at the forefront of the struggle and the negotiations, created a big vacuum. On the day we lost him - the SPLM tried not to allow [that to happen]. We speedily rallied around [Salva Kiir] Mayardit and elected him the new chairman." On 1 August 2005, Garang’s deputy Mayardit took over Garang’s positions as head of the SPLM/A, Sudan’s First Vice-President and President of southern Sudan and vowed to continue his predecessor’s work. Observers fear, however, that Garang’s vision of a united, reformed Sudan is in jeopardy. Alfred Taban, editor of the Khartoum Monitor, an independent newspaper, said many important positions in the new government of southern Sudan (GOSS) had gone to people close to Mayardit who favour southern independence at the expense of former allies of Garang. Chrino Hitan, Garang's chief of staff; Stephan Wondu, former SPLM representative in Washington; and David Mayo, who used to be in charge of civil services, had been bypassed for jobs in the GOSS, he noted. Former members of SPLM’s Leadership Council, Pagan Amum and Nhial Deng Nhial, who helped negotiate the CPA, were appointed adviser for diplomatic affairs and minister of regional cooperation, respectively. According to Taban, however, these were "redundant positions", as the key responsibility lay with the ministry of foreign affairs in Khartoum. Nhial recently resigned and moved to Britain. Garang’s death also weakened the SPLM’s position in the GNU. "The SPLM is a junior partner in this government," Taban said. Amum told IRIN he was aware of the criticism that the SPLM had not played its expected role in national politics, in the resolution of the conflict in Darfur and in a number of other issues, but said it was inevitable after Garang’s death. "If people are disappointed that the SPLM has not done the things expected from it, that could be true. But we are trying; we are trying to assume our responsibility," he said. Amum observed that, after Garang’s death, forces that were anti-CPA had become more emboldened to attempt to renege on the CPA or to prevent its implementation. "[But,] the SPLM has done all it could to manage that crisis and that transition as a whole in a way that makes us continue with the mission left by our late chairman and [take it] to its logical conclusion: that is the transition of the country to democracy, the transition of the country over an interim period of six years and ensuring that the people of southern Sudan will decide their own future," he said. Rebecca Garang de Mabior, Garang’s widow, was less pessimistic, however, and told IRIN that although Garang’s death had initially slowed down the process of CPA implementation, things were now moving ahead as planned. "The CPA is our guide, but peace needs to be worked for," she said. "It does not come by itself." "My husband was the brain behind the peace and he would have been the brain behind the development of southern Sudan," she added. "But we are moving in the same direction." Meanwhile, in Juba Teaching Hospital, a nurse remarks that many newborn boys are named Garang. "There will be a whole new generation of Garangs," she says. Outside, an elderly man struggles to describe the greatness of the southern leader. "He was bigger than all of us," he says eventually. "He was larger than life itself." Up on the hill, the daily trek continues to honour a man who, upon his death, was described by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as "a symbol of hope for millions of Sudanese who aspired to a better future" and by the chairperson of the Commission of the African Union Alpha, Oumar Konaré, as "the embodiment and symbol of the struggles of the people of southern Sudan". ds/mw/eo