What Does John Garang’s Death Mean for Darfur?

Refugee Rights News
Volume 2, Issue 3
September 2005

September 9, 2005 marked the first anniversary of the United States’ declaration that genocide had occurred and might still be occurring in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

A year later, little has changed in the overall character of the international community’s response to the continuing and deteriorating crisis.

Tempered by a more equivocal assessment by UN Commission of Inquiry report in February, the US finding of genocide did not have the power to galvanize the necessary political outrage from the international community. Despite the rhetoric of “never again” heard so often during last year’s commemoration of the Rwanda genocide, the positions of key states remain polarized and the violence continues.

The sum of the decisive action by the international community: a modest extension of the mandate and size of the AU mission on the ground, an increase in humanitarian aid, and a referral of the situation for investigation by the International Criminal Court.

The Sudanese stage, however, has changed dramatically. At the end of July, John Garang, the leader of the southern Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and, for just a mere three weeks before his death, Vice President of Sudan, died in a helicopter crash returning home from a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. His death robbed Sudan of a vital and unifying political figure and cast the North-South peace deal—and the future of the country as a whole—in doubt.

Garang’s death is not just a loss to the South. African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare recently remembered Garang as “a visionary who held out hope for the new Sudan, a diverse, pluralistic, and united Sudan.”

Many Darfurians—and indeed many of those who felt marginalized throughout Sudan—looked to Garang as an inspiration and hoped that his presence in Khartoum would be help the other groups sidelined from power both in the East and West of Sudan. The loss of the most senior statesperson, and the SPLA’s most committed advocate for a united Sudan, is seen by many as a major setback. The SPLA’s new leader, Salva Kiir Mayardiit, has expressed his interest in helping to broker a solution in Darfur, but easing into his new role at the helm of the SPLA and working to build his national profile will limit his capacity to do so.

He will have a formidable task ahead in trying in achieving the same international and national stature as Garang, and in helping to suppress further outbreaks of the kind of inter-communal violence which gripped the capital and other major cities in the days following Garang’s death.

Although thus far the SPLA has held together, and the initial outbreak of violence has quieted down, the situation remains tense. The commencement of an international investigation into the circumstances of the helicopter crash which killed Garang has helped to relieve tensions. As the peace talks on Darfur in Abuja scheduled to begin on September 15 are shadowed by the failure of key negotiators to arrive in time, and a split in the ranks of the SLA, the international community needs to take a decisive stand to put the parties on the path to peace in Darfur—and hold the government to peace in the South.

Reflecting on these developments, and the way forward, the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of more than 30 Africa-based and Africa-focused NGOs working for a just and sustainable solution to the ongoing crisis in Darfur, has just released the report of its consultations during July and August. In addition to offering an analysis of the current advocacy climate, it lays out a platform of action for the coming months.

For more information see:

The Darfur Consortium, Ensuring Accountability and Protection of Civilians in Darfur: Next Steps for the Darfur Consortium, September 2005