Churches Urge Calm, Continued Peace Efforts in Sudan

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Church groups and international agencies are calling on the Sudanese government to continue to implement the country’s fragile _ and now imperiled _ peace process in the wake of the death of Vice President John Garang. Garang, a former southern Sudanese rebel leader who was installed as the country’s […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Church groups and international agencies are calling on the Sudanese government to continue to implement the country’s fragile _ and now imperiled _ peace process in the wake of the death of Vice President John Garang.

Garang, a former southern Sudanese rebel leader who was installed as the country’s first vice president just three weeks ago as part of a peace agreement between the government and the rebels, died Saturday (July 30) when his helicopter crashed in bad weather.


The agreement, which also made him president of southern Sudan, was signed in January and is at what many believe a critical moment in its implementation.

The peace accord aims at ending more than two decades of civil war between the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum and the mainly Christian and animist population of the oil-rich south. An estimated 1.5 million people were killed and 3.5 million displaced during the war, including 600,000 refugees who have fled to neighboring countries.

The new unrest could potentially complicate attempts to resolve the separate conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region, a hotbed of ethnic violence that has killed at least 180,000 and displaced at least 2 million people.

Since Monday (Aug. 1), when Garang’s death was announced, sporadic rioting and violence have left at least 84 people dead in the capital city of Khartoum, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. On Thursday, the Red Crescent Society said there had been at least 130 riot-related deaths, Reuters reported.

The Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, called Garang’s death “a tragedy of enormous proportions.

“His death is a huge loss not only to the people of Sudan but to the people of eastern Africa and the continent as a whole,” Kobia said.

But he said the death “should not adversely affect the process toward economic and social reconstruction of southern Sudan and the need for its people to remain united.”


Kobia’s sentiments were echoed by leaders of African and Sudanese churches and such groups as Lutheran World Relief, Doctors Without Borders, the International Crisis Group and the United Nations.

“We appeal to the people of Sudan to be calm and demonstrate that commitment to peace that Dr. Garang had wished for when he signed the peace agreement,” said the Rev. Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches.

Kathryn Wolford, president of Lutheran World Relief, said Garang’s “unfortunate and tragic death” makes the “already precarious peace agreement that much more vulnerable.

“Now, more than ever, the international community needs to maintain both its political pressure on all sides to honor their commitments, and its support for the vital humanitarian and reconstruction efforts the region will need if lasting peace can truly be achieved,” she said.

The International Crisis Group, the Brussels-based humanitarian think tank, called the situation in Sudan “a dangerous moment” and said the “rioting and looting that have followed … Garang’s death threaten to further destabilize the situation if not brought under control.

“The international community must continue to strongly support the peace agreement and help the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (the political arm of the southern rebel group headed by Garang) at this critical time for it,” the group said in a statement.


In New York, the United Nations Security Council called on the Sudanese people “to refrain from violence and maintain peace in the midst of mourning,” adding that the death should not deter the Sudanese people’s “struggle for justice and dignity.”

“The Security Council trusts that despite Dr. Garang’s sudden death, the people of Sudan remain united and will continue to work for the consolidation of peace in the country by implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for which he had worked unstintingly,” said Japanese U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the August president of the Security Council.

Garang will be succeeded by his longtime deputy _ and sometimes rival _ Salva Kiir Maydarit.

Although the long civil war between Khartoum and the south was fought over greater autonomy for the south, for Garang that autonomy was to be achieved in the context of one Sudan. Kiir, in the past, has been a strong backer of separation.

Under terms of the peace agreement, a referendum on the issue is to be held in six years.

In Washington, the Bush administration sent two senior State Department envoys to Sudan for talks with both government officials in Khartoum and leaders of the southern movement in an effort to prevent the delicate peace from unraveling.


In a statement hailing Garang, President Bush said the leader’s “vision of peace must be embraced by people in Sudan so that they can live in a democratic, peaceful and untied country.”

KRE/JL END ANDERSON

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