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MOHAMED OSMAN and TANALEE SMITH
Associated Press Writers

July 31, 2005, 10:12 PM EDT

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Ugandan and Sudanese forces searched on Monday for a
missing helicopter carrying Sudan's vice president, a former rebel leader
who is a key figure in a fledgling peace deal between the predominantly Arab
Muslim government and the Christian south.

John Garang's helicopter crashed in bad weather in Uganda near the Sudan
border, Uganda's president said.

Garang's absence would be a heavy blow to the January peace deal that ended
a 21-year civil war between the mostly Muslim north and the Christian and
animist south in which some 2 million people died.

The 60-year-old former rebel, who was sworn in as vice president just three
weeks ago, left on a flight from Uganda for southern Sudan at 5:30 p.m.
Ugandan time Saturday afternoon, Sudanese and Ugandan officials said. It was
not clear when the last contact with his craft took place.

His helicopter had attempted to land in the New Kush region of southern
Sudan but aborted the landing because of bad weather and headed back south,
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said early Monday. Weather reports showed
rain in the area.

The craft was heard near Pirre, a mountainous region near the Kenyan and
Sudanese borders on the edge of a large national park, and was believed to
have crash-landed, Museveni said. He added that the Kenyans had been asked
to help in the search.

From Sudan, there were wildly contradictory reports over the disappearance,
although there was no word of foul play.

Sudanese state television reported Sunday night that Garang's craft had
landed safely, but Communications Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat went on TV
hours later to deny the report. "Up to now we do not have any concrete new
information about the whereabouts" of Garang's flight, he said.

Garang, who earned a doctorate from Iowa State University, is seen as the
sole figure with the weight to give southern Sudanese a role in the Khartoum
government, which they deeply mistrust. He also was a strong voice against
outright secession by the south, calling instead for autonomy and
power-sharing.

Sudanese have celebrated the power-sharing agreement -- and a new
constitution signed afterward -- as opening a new chapter of peace and as a
chance to resolve other bloody conflicts in Sudan, including the
humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur.

Garang was sworn in as vice president on July 9 -- second only to his
longtime enemy, President Omar el-Bashir. He and el-Bashir were to work on
setting up a power-sharing government and on elevating Garang's rebel troops
to an equal status with the Sudanese military.

There is no other leader of Garang's stature in the former rebel movement,
the Sudan People's Libaration Army, which he founded and dominated for 21
years. His arrival in Khartoum on July 8 to take the vice president's post
brought millions of southerners and northerners to the streets in
celebration.

His flight's disappearance brought up the shadows of the 1994 downing of the
airplane of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, who had been trying to
implement a power-sharing deal between his fellow Hutus and the rival
Tutsis. His death opened the doors to the Rwandan genocide in which more
than 500,000 people were killed.

That genocide took place after months of preparation by Hutu militants --
something that has not taken place in Sudan amid the good feelings over the
peace deal.

Garang was returning home from a private visit to Uganda, flying from the
capital Kampala to southern Sudan -- a trip that normally takes about two
hours -- said Ugandan army spokesman 2nd Capt. Dennis Musitwa.

"We share the anxieties of the public since it is now 24 hours since the
estimated time of arrival of the helicopter at its destination," Museveni,
the Ugandan president, said in his statement.

Ugandan troops and Sudanese military planes were searching for Garang's
craft in the remote border region. A Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's
Resistance Army, operates in the area and has shot down Ugandan military
helicopters in the past.

Initially, Sudanese television said he left Sunday evening, heading to a
former SPLA base called "Newsite" in southern Sudan. Then it aired a report
that he had landed safely at a SPLA base in southern Sudan. But Sabdarat
denied that report and confirmed that it had left Uganda on Saturday.

El-Bashir clearly saw Garang as an important partner in sealing the peace,
ensuring the south does not secede, and in repairing Sudan's international
reputation. With a speed stunning to many in Sudan, the Sudanese state media
went from describing Garang in the darkest terms to respectively calling him
"Dr. Garang" after the peace deal was struck.

* __

Mohamed Osman reported on this story from Khartoum, and Tanalee Smith
reported from Kassala, Sudan.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

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