Sudanese Vice President's Plane Has Disappeared : Not landed

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBFJPRVTBE.html

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - A plane carrying the former rebel who ascended to Sudan's No. 2 leadership post has disappeared after losing contact, a Sudanese Cabinet minister said Monday on state television, contradicting earlier reports.
The statement came hours after state television interrupted its regular programming to say that Vice President John Garang "has landed safely at a camp in southern Sudan" after his flight from Uganda was reported missing in bad weather on Sunday.

Communications Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said Sudan's president had ordered the country's air force to search for the aircraft.

~click above to continue~

Sudan's VP Garang 'landed safely'
The plane carrying Sudan's First Vice-President John Garang has landed safely at a military base in the country's south, state TV has said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4733571.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4733571.stm

Sudan's government has retracted a report that Vice-President John Garang had landed safely after contact was lost with his aircraft.
A government spokesman said on state television there was no concrete new information about the plane's location.

Mr Garang went missing on Sunday while flying back from Uganda after talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

The former rebel leader was sworn in three weeks ago as part of a peace deal ending a decades-long civil war.

Separately, a senior official who asked not to be named told AFP news agency a previous report that the plane had landed in southern Sudan was "wrong".

Lots of conflicting stories, here is the latest version:

Last Updated: Sunday, 31 July 2005, 22:52 GMT 23:52 UK

Fate of Sudan's VP Garang unclear

Sudan's government has retracted a report that Vice-President John Garang had landed safely after contact was lost with his aircraft.
A government spokesman said on state television there was no concrete new information about the plane's location.

Mr Garang went missing on Sunday while flying back from Uganda after talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

The former rebel leader was sworn in three weeks ago as part of a peace deal ending a decades-long civil war.

Separately, a senior official who asked not to be named told AFP news agency a previous report that the plane had landed in southern Sudan was "wrong".

A search operation would continue on Monday, he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4733571.stm

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Isn't this how the massacre in Rwanda started ... the downing of the airplane of the President - in this case the VP?

This is getting ridiculous.

the other was the dead ex EU president in his pool. And the world gets crazier.

Maybe it wasn't today.

"fell" out of his 9th story apartment window. They could be dropping like flies though. I didn't hear of the new "accident"

Monday August 1, 2005 5:46 AM


AP Photo LON129

By MOHAMED OSMAN and TANALEE SMITH

Associated Press Writers

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - A rebel official said Sudan's vice president, a former rebel leader who is a key figure in the country's fledgling peace deal, was killed in a helicopter crash. Search crews reached the site early Monday and found a body they believe to be that of John Garang, a U.N. official said.

Ugandan and Sudanese forces had been searching for Garang's helicopter since Sunday. Uganda's president said it had crashed in bad weather in the border region between the two countries.

Garang's death 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.

Search crews had reached the crash site on the Sudanese side of the border early Monday and found a body they believed was that of Garang, a U.N. official in the Sudanese capital Khartoum said, citing information from people at the scene. A U.N. helicopter had arrived in the area to help with the search, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5180982,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704