The body of John Garang was flown from town to town in southern Sudan for his people to pay last respects to their popular leader before his burial this weekend.
But his final resting place, Juba, is still recovering from a rampage against Muslim Arabs by ethnic Africans convinced Garang was murdered.
A charred copy of the Koran lay in the dust on an unpaved road of Juba's central business district Thursday, a sign of how southerners took out their anger on symbols of the mostly Muslim Arab north.
Children darted through shattered doors to grab goods from abandoned shops owned by Arabs, who dominate Juba's business sector.
An entire street lined with shops was ravaged -- one side charred concrete stores, the other a row of flattened corrugated tin shacks. Other Arab homes outside the Konyo Konyo district were wrecked as well.
People "are saying the Arabs are the ones who killed Garang," Jane Martin, 30, whispered as she observed the scene. Garang died in a helicopter crash last week that the Sudanese government and Garang's rebel movement say was an accident.
Hundreds of Arabs have fled Juba, the south's impoverished largest city, with a population of 350,000. The city had some 1,200 Arab residents before the riot -- a community that had been growing as more moved in, optimistic about a January peace treaty and Garang's June 9 inauguration as vice president in the Khartoum government.
Adel Ismail, a 45-year-old Arab among dozens at the airport awaiting a flight out, said he was sheltered and fed by an African woman when rioters attacked his shop, stole his goods and set it on fire.
"I ran for a long time before this woman took me in for protection. She said they were doing bad things," he said. "She gave me local food. ... I don't even know her name."
He said soldiers escorted him to the airport.
Ismail said Garang's death changed everything in Sudan.
"It may be more difficult to implement the peace agreement following his death," he said. "But Sudan has no other option."
More than 130 people were killed this week in riots in Khartoum, the capital, and the southern cities of Juba and Malakal, according to the Sudanese Red Crescent.
Juba is supposed to be a symbol of the new Sudan and the cooperation between the central government and Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which fought Khartoum's domination for 21 years.
A town with few paved roads and almost no electricity or water, Juba was a major front in the war. The site of a base for northern troops, it was surrounded by Garang's fighters, who often besieged it.
But under the peace deal, it is to become the capital of an autonomous southern region -- where most of the population is Christian or animist -- with the military reducing its presence and former rebel fighters moving in as a parallel force.
Garang is to be buried in Juba today, with President Omar al-Bashir, his longtime enemy turned peace partner, in attendance. Hundreds of SPLM fighters and dozens of troops from the elite presidential guards came to Juba on Thursday to provide security.
Garang's body was flown Thursday from the southern base of New Site, where his family had been receiving condolences, to other towns so his many supporters could bid farewell.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS