Sudan's vice president calls for unity
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-21 10:40

The former rebel who ascended to Sudan's No. 2 leadership post said Wednesday he wants to bring all Sudan's opposition movements into the political process created by the new power-sharing constitution.

First Vice President John Garang said he was working with other government leaders to further implement the peace agreement that ended Sudan's civil war.

"I came from the jungle; but Khartoum is different jungle and I'm getting to know it," Garang told reporters at his first press conference since making a dramatic arrival in Khartoum and taking office July 9.

Sudanese first vice president Dr. John Garang De Mabior told the first press conference in Khartoum, Wednesday,July 20, 2005.[AP]

Garang led the Sudan People's Liberation Army in a 21-year civil war between the Muslim north and mainly Christian and animist south that ended in January with the signing of the peace pact, which provided a power sharing between the Khartoum government and Garang's movement.

The settlement made Garang first vice president — second only to President Omar el-Bashir — as well as president of southern Sudan, letting him set up an interim administration there until a referendum in six years on secession.

He met this week with influential Islamist opposition leader Hassan Turabi and discussed including other groups in the government.

"We started reaching out to various political groups so that they'll get involved" in the peace process, he said.

Turabi and others have complained that the agreement and new constitution favored southerners at the expense of other marginalized groups, including northern groups opposed to al-Bashir's autocratic rule.

But Garang said the agreement promised complete inclusiveness.

"We want all the people of Sudan, all political forces to be involved in the implementation of the peace agreement," Garang said. "It's full of everything. It has a bill of rights, human rights, political rights, wealth sharing. It's complete."

Garang conceded that Sudan had to address the conflict in Darfur and tensions in the east before a real comprehensive peace could be realized and said he would borrow on his experiences negotiating peace for the south.

"I will do whatever is necessary to help them to achieve a just political settlement in Darfur and in eastern Sudan and bring them into the peace process," he said.

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