John Garang de Mabior

When Colonel John Garang de Mabior died in 2005 Salva became number one and they all moved up a notch...

When he took over the SPLM/A leadership after the death of Colonel John Garang de Mabior in 2005 Salva abandoned the SPLM/A's original vision of a 'united secular Sudan' in favour of Riek's (and most South Sudanese's) goal of Southern independence...

The late SPLA leader John Garang de Mabior may have championed federalism within a united Sudan but in South Sudan it can be code for Equatorian nationalism and for anti-Dinka feeling...

' Over 1 000 kilometres to the south-west Salva's rival Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon was hosting a delegation of senior African and European officials at his redoubt near Nasir in Upper Nile State and site of his split from Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) leader John Garang de Mabior in 1991 (AC Vol 46 No 21 Gunmen or soldiers)...

John Garang who was fully trained in conventional warfare and also a Bor Dinka was cautious about the tactic even then well aware that it can fuel intra-clan fighting and traditional cattle raiding...

This fighting was the culmination of months of rising tension symbolised by three SPLM leaders – Riek Machar Teny Pa'gan Amum Okiech and Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior (Rebecca Garang) widow of the SPLM founding leader Colonel John Garang de Mabior – who announced they would run for the SPLM chairmanship next year...

Riek's partner in the 1991 split from John Garang the Shilluk warlord Lam Akol Ajawin signed multiple agreements with Field Marshal Omer el Beshir's regime and went on to serve in the post­-2005 Government of National Unity (GNU) in Khartoum later standing against Salva in the 2010 election...

They are among the most senior cadres in the SPLM and almost all were close allies of John Garang and celebrated heroes of the liberation struggle...

This fighting was the culmination of months of rising tension symbolised by three SPLM leaders – Riek Machar Teny Pa'gan Amum Okiech and Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior (Rebecca Garang) widow of the SPLM founding leader Colonel John Garang de Mabior – who announced they would run for the SPLM chairmanship next year...

Riek's partner in the 1991 split from John Garang the Shilluk warlord Lam Akol Ajawin signed multiple agreements with Field Marshal Omer el Beshir's regime and went on to serve in the post­-2005 Government of National Unity (GNU) in Khartoum later standing against Salva in the 2010 election...

They are among the most senior cadres in the SPLM and almost all were close allies of John Garang and celebrated heroes of the liberation struggle...

Aleu publicly accuses Museveni of killing John Garang de Mabior in 2005 and was State (Junior) Interior Minister in Khartoum in the 2005 National Unity Government at a time when Pa'gan and Yasir Saeed Arman now SG of the Sudan Revolutionary Front were arrested and beaten up...

Prominent at the press conference are Pa'gan Amum Okiech (whom Salva had dismissed as SPLM Secretary General) Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon Deng Alor Kuol Alfred Ladu Gore (an Equatorian SPLM founder) and Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior widow of the SPLM founding Chairman Colonel John Garang de Mabior...

Rebecca Garang widow of the late SPLM leader John Garang de Mabior has also been detained showing the depth of the schism...

Salva led the party's u-turn away from the late John Garang's policy of a united secular Sudan in favour of an independent South Sudan...