Sudan looking into Garang assassination claims

NAIROBI, June 22 2007 - The Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi yesterday described as “too sensitive” claims by the widow of former Sudanese Vice-President John Garang de Mabior that he was assassinated.

Ambassador Majok Guandong said he was not ready to comment on the issue raised by Rebecca Garang, over the weekend, which he described as “personal.”

He, however, said they were still studying the claims before making an official statement later this week.

Speaking through his press attaché Somaya Abdel Sadig, Mr. Guandong said the widow did not accuse anyone or group of people of master-minding the alleged assassination plot.

The ambassador said he was among the scores of guests who had attended one of the two functions held over the weekend in honour of the former VP and founding leader of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army/Movement.
Mr. Guandong was in the company of Ms. Garang in one of the functions held to commemorate the second anniversary of his death in a helicopter crash in South Sudan.

He attended the public lecture at the University of Nairobi in the afternoon, but not the dinner party at the Grand Regency Hotel, thereafter.
At the dinner, Ms. Garang said: “When my husband died, I did not come out openly and say he was killed because I knew the consequences. At the back of my mind, I knew my husband had been assassinated.”
She made the revelation for the first time since burying her husband two years ago at the ceremony to honor him posthumously by the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation.

However, the SPLA office in Kampala dismissed her claims. “I don’t think it is true. Investigations were carried out and nothing was established. I don’t know where she got her information from. Maybe the right word she could have used is conspiracy,” an SPLA official who didn’t want his identity revealed told Daily Monitor yesterday in a telephone interview.

The late Garang died on July 30, 2005, after a Ugandan presidential helicopter he was travelling in crashed as he headed back to South Sudan, after a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Source: Agencies