Word: garang
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...John Garang is seated in a dry riverbed, under the sweeping branches of an acacia tree. Around his belt, the tall (6 ft. 4 in.), American-educated leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) wears a knife and a 9-mm automatic pistol; his thick hands are clasped around the stock and barrel of a Hungarian-made AKM assault rifle, private serial number 000. Suddenly, the stillness is broken by the shouts of 1,000 of Garang's guerrillas passing on their way to battle at nearby Kapoeta, a southern Sudanese town 140 miles east...
Over the past three years, Garang and his 20,000 fighters have been steadily gaining ground in their struggle against the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum. By now they have virtually taken over the southern third of Sudan, laying siege to its four largest towns and in the process, cutting off food shipments to at least 2 million famine-struck people on the brink of starvation...
...reflected an increasing sense of anarchy in southern Sudan, which the rebels have virtually severed from the rest of the country. Since 1983 the insurgents have violently resisted efforts of the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum to impose its customs on the Christian and pagan south. Led by John Garang, a Christian from the Dinka tribe, the rebels have especially chafed against the "September laws" of former President Gaafar Nimeiri. Imposed in September 1983, the Islamic laws have been applied with unusual severity to all Sudanese, whatever their religion. In 1984 alone, hundreds of people, including foreigners, were given...
...might be restored. But before long, the fighting resumed. In May the first national election since 1968 brought to power Sadiq el Mahdi, leader of the moderate Muslim Umma Party. Making peace his top priority, the Oxford-educated Sadiq lost no time in arranging a meeting in Ethiopia with Garang, who holds a doctorate in agricultural economics from Iowa State. Yet the two leaders could not concur on terms for a cease-fire. Last week Sadiq agreed to repeal the September laws within ten days. But how he would unify a country with 160 ethnic groups speaking 100 different languages...
Meanwhile, Garang's force of roughly 12,000 men threatened to tighten its siege of Sudan's four large southern towns. In addition, the insurgents braced themselves for an expected assault from government forces, supported, the rebels claimed, by 13,000 Libyan troops gathered on the border. Though Sadiq denies any ties to Tripoli, there seems little doubt that he is drifting politically leftward. In early August the new Prime Minister visited Libya, which had been an enemy of the pro-American Nimeiri, and later he traveled to Moscow. Said Information Minister Mohammed Tewfiq Ahmed: "We cannot afford to have...