Sudan's First Vice President killed in plane crash
By Alfred Taban
KHARTOUM, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Sudan's
first vice president and at least seven others were killed when their plane
overshot a small runway in heavy fog and plunged into a river in southern
Sudan on Thursday, official media said.
The Sudan news agency SUNA said
First Vice-President Lieutenant-General Al-Zubeir Mohammad Saleh and at
least seven guards and officials were killed in the accident in Nasir,
about 700 km (435 miles) south of Khartoum near the Ethiopian border.
Official media said the Antonov military
plane missed the start of the runway when trying to land and plunged into
the river Sobat, where it sank. Many passengers are still missing.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)
said Saleh's plane was shot down by its rebels.
''It was not a crash,'' Justin Yaac,
spokesman for the SPLA's political wing, told Reuters in Nairobi. ''The
plane was on its way to Juba (southern Sudan) and when it was in an area
we control we shot it down.''
The claim could not be independently
confirmed.
Arok Thon Arok, a former Independent
Group rebel leader who was one of the signatories of a Khartoum peace agreement
in 1997, also died.
Initial reports on SUNA had said that
both Information Minister Brigadier Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohamed Khair and
Animal Resources Minister Musa Mek Kur survived.
It later said that it could not
confirm Kur's condition.
The bodies of some of those who were
killed were flown back to Khartoum airport late on Thursday and loaded
onto pick up trucks, witnesses said.
Mourners followed the bodies, shouting
''He is our martyr.''
Men in white robes and turbans flocked
to a city park after news of the crash and speakers rallied the crowd in
mass condolences.
Waving their fists or staffs in the
air, the crowd shouted ''Allahu Akbar'' (God is Greatest).
Women in colourful robes held their
hands up to the sky.
''Saleh went to his God, to whom we
all will return,'' said one speaker on the platform.
State television showed footage of the
tall, striking Saleh in camouflage uniform inspecting the army or in traditional
robe and turban.
''A million martyrs to unite Sudan!''
it showed him saying at a rally.
The SPLA has been fighting since 1983
for autonomy for the mainly black, Christian and animist south from the
Arabised, Moslem north.
It has stepped up its insurgency in
south Sudan recently and is currently involved in fighting for Wau, the
south's second-biggest city, around 600 km (375 miles) east of Nasir.
Yaac told Reuters in Nairobi that he
was awaiting details. ''At the moment I only have confirmation of the shooting,
I am still waiting for details of the numbers and other details.''
There was no immediate reaction from
the Sudan government.
Nasir is controlled by Riek Machar,
one of the former rebels who allied with the government when he signed
the peace deal.
Hundreds flocked to the presidential
palace overlooking the Nile river and waited in snaking queues to pay condolences
to Sudan's President Lieutenant-General Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who received
them with a sombre handshake.
Sudan state television played readings
from the Moslem holy book, the Koran, after the announcement of the crash.
Sudan newspapers had reported recently
that Saleh was inspecting rebel defectors this week throughout the country.
A resident said the officials would
be buried on Friday.
Reuters
13 February 1998
02:43 AM