 Amid scenes of wild jubilation, the head of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) arrived Saturday in the new provisional capital of southern Sudan for the first time since signing historic peace deal.
Several thousand people were packed into the town's Freedom Square to welcome John Garang on his return, while along the route dozens of bulls were offered to him as gifts by the population. Garang, set to be named as Sudan's new vice president,
| ... and then to be assassinated... |
will install in Rumbek a transitional administration which will take charge of the region after the Khartoum government and his rebels signed a final peace accord in January in Kenya. The agreement ended Africa's longest-running civil war, which claimed the lives of 1.5 million people displaced four million more in 21 years of conflict between the Muslim-dominated government and the mainly Christian south. As Garang arrived at the town's landing strip, locals slaughtered a white bull in a traditional welcome and Garang, in line with the regional custom, stepped over the blood that spouted out onto the tarmac. Hundreds of supporters were at the airstrip as he landed, chanting slogans in favour of the peace deal and waving the multicoloured flag of the south as children danced to the music of drums and other traditional instruments. |