Grieving southern Sudanese paid respects to former rebel leader John Garang yesterday as diplomatic moves began to ensure the peace deal he supported would hold despite riots over his death that killed 36 people.

Garang who just three weeks ago became Sudan's vice-president as part of a January peace died when a Ugandan helicopter he was travelling in went down in bad weather at the weekend.

There has been no suggestion of foul play.

Fellow ex-fighters, supporters and relatives gathered in New Site, a small settlement in the remote bush of southern Sudan, where Garang's body was laid in a wooden casket with a flag.

Scented charcoal burned in the modest room where the casket rested. Outside, men in green combat fatigues sat under thorn trees, some holding rifles.

Garang's former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) announced five days of mourning starting yesterday and said they would transport the corpse to Juba, also in the south, for a funeral. The body would not go to Khartoum for viewing because of the riots, the SPLM said.

Seeking to confound predictions from some of a messy succession fight, the SPLM moved swiftly on Monday evening to choose a senior Garang ally, Salva Kiir, to succeed him.

The SPLM expects Kiir to take Garang's post as first vice-president in the new power-sharing government set up in the January accord that ended two decades of north-south conflict, Africa's longest-running civil war.

His death prompted some of them to rampage through the streets of Khartoum on Monday in some of the worst riots in the capital in years. Police said at least 36 people were killed.

After a 6 pm-6 am curfew, Sudanese armoured vehicles deployed at strategic points around the capital, which was dotted with burnt-out shops and smashed vehicles.

"John Garang was a special person, very charismatic and visionary. He was different from Salva Kiir who is calm, composed and calculative, so each one has his own traits," said Kenya's Lieutenant-General Lazarus Sumbeiywo Kenyan, who was the chief mediator in the Sudan peace talks.

(China Daily August 3, 2005)