c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The sudden death on July 31 of the charismatic John Garang, the southern Sudanese Christian and rebel leader who for 21 years fought the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum and then became a peace-brokering icon of national unity, could have sent the oil-rich African nation into yet another round of violence and civil war.

But after a brief spasm of inter-communal rioting and looting _ more than 130 people were killed in the first days after Garang’s helicopter crashed as a he returned from Uganda _ the violence eased as religious leaders and preachers used Friday prayers to appeal for unity, calm and self-restraint.

Both the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, the political arm of the southern Christian and animist rebels seeking greater autonomy from the Muslim-dominated Sudanese government, and the government in Khartoum moved fairly quickly to ease the tensions following Garang’s death.

The SPLM formally named Salva Kiir Mayardiit, Garang’s deputy in the SPLM, as head of the organization. He was quickly sworn in as first vice president in the Government of National Unity and president of southern Sudan in the government that was formed as part of the peace accord ending the 21-year civil war.

But despite dodging the bullet of an immediate upheaval, Sudan, and especially Kiir, faces a number of challenges in the immediate future if the peace momentum is to be sustained. At the same time, Sudanese unity must be maintained and the ongoing conflict in the western Darfur region resolved.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed last January called for power sharing _ the new unity government _ and more equitable sharing of the nation’s wealth between the Arab Muslim-dominated government and the African Christian and animist south.

About 90 percent of Sudan’s oil is in the south, but per capita income in the region is estimated at less than $90 a year _ four times lower than the rest of Sudan.

Kiir, 54, is a respected leader and a founding member of the SPLM. He is considered a brilliant military commander but is not thought to be as politically or diplomatically skillful as Garang.

“One of Garang’s greatest national assets was his perceived support for a united `New Sudan,’ based on equality, secularism and democracy _ in sharp contrast to the widespread demand for independence among southerners, including within the SPLM,” according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, an independent think tank that specializes in conflict resolution.

The highly respected IGC made its assessment in a briefing paper, “Garang’s Death: Implications for Peace in Sudan,” issued Aug. 9.

But Garang’s vision has not won full-scale support in either the secessionist south, dominated by non-Muslims, nor in the north, where many Islamists feared Garang’s advocacy of secularism as a threat to Sudan’s Sharia law.

The Crisis Group noted that in early July, about the time Garang was installed in the unity government, 25 members of the Sharia Association of Religious Scholars and Preachers issued a fatwa, or religious edict, labeling Muslims who joined or collaborated with the SPLM apostates.

Christian leaders in Africa, however, are anxious that the tensions that followed Garang’s death do not flare into renewed religious conflict.

“We want to ensure the conflict does not assume a religious tone,” the Rev. Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, said following a visit to Sudan shortly after the rioting.

Kiir, who also differed with Garang in backing secession of the south, has pledged _ for the moment _ to support the unity effort.

In his swearing-in, Kiir argued that “peace and unity are meaningless without development of our vast resources,” and he called on Western nations, who were crucial in pushing the peace process, to make good on the pledges of economic and development support. At an April meeting in Oslo, donors pledged $4.5 billion to support the peace process, especially with aid to the impoverished south. In May, however, aid agencies said they had seen little of the promised help.

Garang’s death is also likely to delay implementation of some aspects of the peace accord and to distract from efforts to resolve the conflict in Darfur, where some 180,000 people have died since 2003.

The International Crisis Group noted that the international community “had high hopes” that Garang could have played a key role in negotiating an accord to end the violence in Darfur. But it said his ability to change policies would have been limited.

“He would likely have been too consumed by the south to exert himself fully and push the parties toward an agreement,” the IGC said.

It said while Kiir has publicly declared his desire to help oversee an end to the Darfur conflict, he will “find himself in an even weaker position than Garang to influence government policy there.”

Whether Garang’s death and the new fragility of the prospects for peace will again focus the international community’s attention on Sudan remains uncertain.

KRE/JL END ANDERSON