 Ugandan and Sudanese forces were searching for John Garang, the southern rebel leader-turned-vice president who is seen as crucial to Sudan's fledgling peace deal, early Monday after his helicopter disappeared amid reports it crashed in bad weather in northern Uganda. Garang, who was sworn in as vice president just three weeks ago, left on a flight from Uganda for southern Sudan at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Sudanese and Ugandan officials said. It was not known when the last contact with his craft took place.
| And he didn't know any better than not to take a helicopter ride? I thought he grew up in Sudan? |
The 60-year-old Garang was in a Ugandan military helicopter that crash-landed in bad weather, likely on the Ugandan side of the border, Ugandan authorities said.
| Ahhh... It was Ugandan. So even though he wouldn't have been caught dead it a Sudanese heli, he ends up being caught dead in an Ugandan machine... |
From Sudan, there were wildly contradictory reports over the disappearance, although there was no word of foul play.
Sudanese state television reported Sunday night that Garang's craft had landed safely, but Communications Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat went on TV hours later to deny the report. "Up to now we do not have any concrete new information about the whereabouts" of Garang's flight, he said. Garang's absence would be a heavy blow to the January peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the mostly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south in which some 2 million people died. Sudanese have celebrated the agreement — and a new constitution signed afterward — as opening a new chapter of peace and as a chance to resolve other bloody conflicts in Sudan, including the humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur. |