The Monitor (Kampala)

August 3, 2005

Hussein Bogere & Agencies
Kampala

A United States surveillance satellite was used to
locate the wreckage of President Yoweri Museveni's
helicopter on which Dr John Garanga and 13others
died, a highly placed security source has told Daily
Monitor.

The same source identified US as the foreign country
President Museveni has asked to investigate for any
sabotage or terrorism in the accident.

According to the source who is well knowledgeable,
the chopper's detectors were most likely rendered
nonfunctional by a strong cross-wind (moving in
opposite direction as the chopper) and a heavy
storm. "That is why it failed to detect the hill and
ended up crashing it," the source told Daily
Monitor.

Another source from State House disclosed that it
was because of the censor troubles on the chopper
that President Museveni chose not to use it to
travel to Rwanda in June, opting to go by road which
ended up in the border incident where most of his
convoy was turned back.Meanwhile the SPLM/A
spokesman Pagan Amun announced on Tuesday that Lt.
Gen. John Garang would be buried on Saturday in Juba
- the town he selected as the capital of an
autonomous southern Sudan.

His body will first be taken to other key towns in
southern Sudan to allow supporters to pay final
respects before the state funeral in Juba, Mr Amunan
nounced.

Ugandan officials yesterday couldn't readily confirm
whether President Yoweri Museveni would attend the
burial.

"We are not sure yet," the Senior Presidential
Adviser on the Media, John Nagenda told Daily
Monitor yesterday. Garang died in a helicopter crash
enroute to New Site in southern Sudan after visiting
Museveni at his country home in Rwakitura in western
Uganda.

State Foreign Minister Najib al-Khaeir Abdelwahad
confirmed on Tuesday "It will be Salva Kiir
succeeding Garang, but no date had been fixed yet
for his installation."

Salva Kiir prepared Tuesday to succeed the late John
Garang as head of Sudan's southern movement as the
United States dispatched two envoys amid mounting
concerns over the fragile peace process.

The US envoys headed to Sudan to shore up the
implementation of the January peace deal that ended
21 years of north-south civil war and under which
Garang had been appointed first vice president in a
unity government.

Kiir, who has little experience as a statesman and
is now the only surviving founder member of the
former rebel movement, now faces a daunting
challenge in ensuring the peace deal that his
predecessor will be remembered for remains intact.

Violent riots rocked Khartoum on Monday following
the announcement of the charismatic southerner's
death in a chopper crash with 42 deaths reported by
medical sources so far.

Heavily-armed troops are patrolling the streets of
Sudan's capital, Khartoum, to stop further violence.

Top officials of Garang's southern former rebel
group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A), convened in his former headquarters in the
town of New Site late on Monday and elected Salva
Kiir to replace him at the helm of the group.

Both the SPLM/A and Bashir have vowed to proceed
with the peace process despite the death of one of
his main proponents and architects.

But the hurried departure of US top envoys reflects
concern that Garang's death could weaken efforts to
keep the peace in the war torn African country and
end the crisis in its Western Darfur region.

Connie Newman, assistant secretary of state for
African affairs, and Roger Winter, special
representative for Sudan, were en route to Kenya's
capital Nairobi Tuesday and expected in Sudan a day
later, a US embassy spokesman in Khartoum said.


She said they would meet SPLM officials in Nairobi -
a former base of the movement in exile. State
Department spokesman Tom Casey said the pair "will
be going to southern Sudan and to Khartoum to confer
with the parties and encourage them to maintain
momentum on the comprehensive peace agreement and Darfur."

The United States has worked hard to nail down the
north-south peace pact and try to end what it calls
a genocide in the western region of Darfur that has
left up to 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million
homeless.