Sudan enters a new era: Ex-rebel leader lands in Khartoum

[SOO MAAL]

Ex-rebel leader lands in Khartoum

Southern Sudanese leader John Garang has been given a rapturous welcome in Khartoum on his first visit to the capital since civil war began in 1983.

Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets which were decked out in the black, green, white and red colours of his SPLM former rebel movement.

 

Under January's deal to end 21 years of war, he is due to be sworn in as first vice-president on Saturday.

 

Until recently, waving an SPLM flag in Khartoum would have invited arrest.

 

Trees and roofs packed

 

As Mr Garang and his wife stepped off the plane in the capital, some 100 government ministers and dignitaries lined the red carpet to shake the former rebel's hand.

 

 

Frankly, we as southerners never expected to see Garang in Khartoum

Khartoum resident

 

Tight security stopped Mr Garang - who flew from Rumbek, provisional capital of southern Sudan - from meeting his supporters at the airport.

 

But the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says there were chaotic scenes on the streets of the capital where teeming southern Sudanese were anxious to welcome the beginning of a new era.

 

Huge crowds gathered in central Khartoum's Green Square for a rally, where Mr Garang briefly appeared, waving and blowing kisses to the crowd.

 

Trees and roofs were packed with everyone straining to catch a glimpse of Mr Garang, who 22 years ago left Khartoum to launch an uprising in the south.

 

From the top of the stadium there were people as far as the eye could see, our correspondent says.

 

Optimism

 

Earlier, President Omar al-Bashir welcomed his former enemy to Khartoum, saying it was a "day of real peace".

 

"I congratulate the Sudanese people, this is not my peace or the peace of al-Bashir, it is the peace of the Sudanese people," Mr Garang said at an official reception at which the two men shook hands.

 

 

 

 

 

Our correspondent says there is great optimism amongst southern Sudanese in Khartoum about the peace deal designed to end two decades of war between the Muslim north and the mainly Christian south that left an estimated 1.5m people dead.

 

Earlier this week, Sudan's parliament approved an interim constitution, based on the deal, under which power and Sudan's new oil wealth will be shared between north and south, Islamic Sharia law will not be applied in the south and the south will hold a referendum on secession in six years' time.

 

No Christian or southerner has ever held such a senior position in Sudan's largely Islamic government.

 

"There was such a huge amount of enmity and bad feelings, you would expect Garang to be killed. But to come to Khartoum, that we never expected," a northern Sudanese lecturer told the AP news agency.

 

The deal to end the war in the south does not affect the separate conflict in the western region of Darfur.

 

However, Mr Garang has said he will try to use the deal he agreed as a blueprint to bring peace to Darfur.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

[SOO MAAL]

Sudanese crowd streets to greet former rebel

 

 

KHARTOUM, July 8 (Reuters) - Former southern Sudanese rebel leader John Garang arrived in Khartoum on Friday to be sworn in as first vice president in a government born out of a peace agreement that ended more than two decades of civil war.

 

Garang, leader of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), was greeted by more than one million Sudanese as he arrived in the capital for the first time in more than 20 years.

 

He was drowned out by joyous crowds chanting his name as he tried to deliver a speech at Khartoum's main Green Square where people had waited patiently since early morning.

 

"This is the first time he's putting his feet in Khartoum in 22-23 years," Norwegian International Development Minister Hilde Johnson told Reuters on Garang's arrival. "It is a historic day ... which turns a new chapter in Sudanese history."

 

The SPLM signed a peace deal in January to end Africa's longest civil war. The deal paves the way for wealth and power sharing and a new coalition government, which will be headed by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with Garang as his deputy.

 

Both Bashir and Garang will be sworn in on Saturday in the presence of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, senior U.S. officials and several African presidents, including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki.

 

"Welcome to you and to your people, welcome to you in Khartoum, welcome to you from all the people of Sudan," Bashir told Garang at the headquarters of the ruling National Congress Party, which has dominated Sudanese politics since a military coup in 1989.

 

Garang said he was among brothers and sisters in Khartoum. "I want to say to you all, congratulations to you on the peace which belongs to you," he told people at party headquarters. "It's not my peace, it's your peace, the people of Sudan."

 

The SPLM fought a long guerrilla war to gain more equality for people in the south. The conflict, which claimed 2 million lives, broadly pitted the Islamist government in Khartoum against the mostly Christian and animist south. It was complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology.

 

The huge crowd in Green Square briefly turned violent with supporters clashing with police, but all was quickly forgotten when Garang appeared. Both northerners and southerners fell over each other, some people fainting from the heat, to catch a glimpse of the man they consider their hero of peace.

 

Dressed informally in a red paisley shirt, Garang waved to the people but could not make himself heard over the crowd shouting, "Welcome, welcome, John Garang." People clambered up trees, covered rooftops and a brave few slithered up the 25-metre high poles of the floodlights in the square.

 

LANDMARK DAY

 

"This is a landmark day in the history of Sudan. This is a new era in Sudan, an era of peace, democracy and transformation," said Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab, state minister for foreign relations.

 

Thousands jammed the streets bringing traffic to a standstill. Music blared and people danced, despite Islamic sharia law prohibiting mixed dancing still in force in the capital.

 

"Now we have no freedom, we have no places to live, but when he comes everyone will walk in the road not fearing anything," said southerner Peter Kwech, who lives in Khartoum.

 

Under the deal Sudan's current ruling party will have 52 percent of government and parliament, and Garang's movement 28 percent, with northern and southern opposition parties taking the remaining 20 percent. The south is to vote in a referendum within six years on secession from Khartoum.

 

Garang and Bashir are expected to form the new coalition government by Aug. 9. Garang will also hold talks with southern militias who have not signed the peace deal.

 

The deal does not cover a separate conflict in the western region of Darfur where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes since rebels took up arms in early 2003.

[BN]

Its hard to imagine that this day could have come. I'm happy for the people of Sudan and hope them many years of peace...they deserve it.

[Suldaanka]

It came as a result of foreign pressure and the fact that a continued denial by the Government of Al Bashir of the rights of the Southern communities was not going to solve the problem. So in the end, the Sudanese government has to face upto the challenge and make the compromises that has been made.

 

In a referedum for the South which is going to be held in 6 years' time as agreed, the southern Sudanese people will be presented a choice of whether they will continue to be part of Sudan and have an autonomous region or opt for complete independence.

 

That is a progress and sense of direction.