The Monitor Online, August 9, 2005
Rumours dismissed CHARLES M. MWANGUHYA KAMPALA
Government has roundly dismissed rumours that fallen Sudanese First Vice President, Dr John Garang, was shot by possible hijackers before the presidential chopper in which he was traveling crashed in Southern Sudan on July 30.
The Government Spokesperson and Minister of Information Dr James Nsaba Buturo described the rumour as irresponsible.
Buturo said a Cabinet meeting yesterday had resolved to deal ruthlessly with the purveyors of the rumours who seek to take advantage of such national tragedies.
He said the rumours had offended the President, the families and everybody. People in Khartoum, Juba have been calling about these false reports, he said.
Dr Garang died last week in a helicopter crash as he returned home after a two-day visit to President Yoweri Museveni.
He was travelling in the presidential helicopter piloted by Col. Peter Nyakairu and six other Ugandan c rew members who all perished in the crash. Government says the plane crashed due to bad weather in the areas of Kidepo valley inside the Sudan.Theories
Since the crash several conspiracy theories have been advanced as some people refuse to accept that Garangs death was a normal accident.
The Sudan government retained the bodies of the Ugandan crew members to allow investigations.
Buturo said that three separate teams of experts had been commissioned to carry out detailed investigations into the crash.
These include a Uganda government team, another from the Sudan government and an international team comprising experts from the United States, the United Nations, Russia, which manufactured and serviced the MI72 helicopter (VIP-version), Kenya, Uganda and Sudan.
Buturo said the reports of the investigators will clear the air about the actual cause of the deaths. He said the various teams of experts are ca rrying out their investigations independently and would therefore not be compromised. Government has been bold to invite these people and the reports will be made public, he said.Sudan gathers data on chopper
PETER NYANZI & AGENCIES
THE Sudanese government has started collecting information about the Ugandan presidential helicopter on which former SPLA leader and Sudanese Vice President, Dr John Garang died with 12 other persons.
Sudans Civil Aviation Corporation Director, Engineer Abu Bakr Jaafar, told the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) on Saturday that the Technical Committee formed by the acting Minister of Aviation, Mr Ustaz Ali Tamim Fertak to investigate Garangs plane crash, had started its proceedings.
This development comes days after President Yoweri Museveni told mourners in Yei, southern Sudan that the helicopter crash in which Garang was killed on July 30 might have been due to other causes.
According to The Sudan Vision, a local daily, Jaafar explained that the Committee, headed by Consultant Engineer, Mr Al Haj Khidir, an expert in helicopter planes, had set a work plan that includes a visit to the crash site during which basic information about the plane would be gathered from concerned quarters.
He indicated that contacts would be made through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Higher Committee. He said Sudanese participation on the investigation committee was crucial on account of the fact that the plane crashed on Sudanese soil and resulted in the death of the second senior-most man in the country.
The United States Deputy Secretary of States special envoy for Sudan, Mr Roger Winter, has also confirmed that United States is sending experts to help with the investigations.
Winter, who attended Garangs funeral in the southern town of Juba on Saturday with Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Ms Constance Newman, said the United States had been requested to help with the investigations into the July 30 crash.
Reuters on Sunday quoted Newman as saying that the USA had agreed and five experts from the National Transportation Safety Board - the best that we have - are already in Nairobi ready to move to the site to carry out the investigation.
The experts will feed information to a joint investigation commission.
While paying last respects to his long time friend on Friday, President Museveni said the cause of the crash was unclear and he could not rule out foul play. Some people say accident, it may be an accident, it may be something else, Museveni told mourners at Yei on the eve of the burial. Museveni did not attend the burial.
The [helicopter] was very well equipped, this was my [helicopter] the one I am flying all the time, I am not ruling anything out.
Museveni said the pilot could have panicked or there was some side wind or the instruments failed or there was an external factor.
The inquiry will look at all possibilities, he said. Museveni said an aviation team of experts from Uganda, Kenya, the United States, Britain and Russia would h elp clear the air.
But Musevenis remarks did not go down well with the Sudanese government, which criticised Museveni saying issuing statements or possibilities before the investigations were completed would only damage the investigations.
Speaking to SUNA, the Sudan minister of information and telecommunication, who is also the official government spokesman, Mr Abd-al-Basit Sabdarat, said We are making efforts to investigate the saddening incident and we have already started our investigations by setting up a technical committee and we hope that all parties, especially Uganda, would stop issuing statements which are not based on facts, he said.
Garang wanted to cancel flight GRACE MATSIKO JUBA SUDANESE First Vice-President, Lt. Gen. John Garang wanted to cancel the ill fated journey to New Site, Southern Sudan reasoning that it was not safe to land in the area after 7pm.
A security source said President Yoweri Museveni's chief pilot, Col. Peter Nyakairu, assured the inquisitive Gen. Garang at Entebbe International Airport that the helicopter was in good mechanical condition to overcome any challenges during the flight.
"Garang wanted to put off the flight till next day. He asked the pilot (Nyakairu) whether it was safe to fly after 5.00p.m and make it in good time but Nyakairu said, 'Afande we shall make it, it is very safe'," a source who was present before the helicopter was flagged off told the Daily Monitor in Juba, Southern Sudan at the weekend during the funeral of Garang.
Garang's widow, Rebecca Nyandeng, told KTN,a Kenyan news network that her husband expressed reservations about flying to New Site, when it was getting dark.
In an interview with KTN from southern Sudan, the widow said Garang and his aides, however, told her that the pilot had assured them that the chopper was capable of making the journey.
PROPOSED TO CANCEL FLIGHT: Garang She ruled out foul-play, saying her husband, like the biblical Moses, had fulfilled his mission and his time to move on had come.
An aviation source said a confident Nyakairu saluted Garang and ushered him into the helicopter where he sat with State House protocol officer, Samuel Bakowa before they took off for Southern Sudan.
The helicopter crashed near New Site, one and a half hours into the ill-fated journey, killing all the passengers on board including Garang.
An aviation source said that Col. Nyakairu was flying the helicopter to Southern Sudan for the first time, so the bad weather could have posed a serious challenge to him. It seems the weather was bad and he (Nyakairu) radioed Entebbe International Airport that he was on the way back but we never heard from them".
Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) officials at New Site who were waiting to receive Garang reportedly said they saw the helicopter come to land when it was alrea dy dark as seen from the flickering red lights on its belly but later saw it turn back to Uganda side.
Aviation sources said Nyakairu told Entebbe Control Tower his flight plan was Kidepo Valley National Park.
But up to 8 p.m. they had not heard from him.=====
Tell us who got Kayiiras report
I read with much interest the explanation of Dr Paul K. Ssemogerere about the death and investigations of the late Dr Andrew L. Kayiira.
As Dr Ssemogerere has always explained, I wonder why he always leaves a gap in the whole saga.
In the Daily Monitor Friday August 5, 2005, he said he never got the report from Scotland Yard, but Ugandans need him to tell them who received the report and then we can ask him boldly what happened to the report that was never published.
Dr Ssemogerere, who to your knowledge received the report? You owe the answer to Ugandans.David Kanyerezi
Kampala
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