Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

646 • SUICIDE TERRORISMcontrolled the southern region around the town of Nasir bordering Ethiopia,signed separate peace agreements with the Sudanese government,concluding negotiations carried out by the Sudanese vice president,Lieutenant General al-Zubeir Mohammad Saleh, but these were notimplemented due to Saleh’s death on 12 February 1998. In May 1998representatives of the Sudanese government and SPLA met in Nairobi,Kenya, for peace negotiations, which produced an agreement in principleto allow a referendum under international supervision in the southin two years to allow the people there to decide on the issue of selfdetermination.Both sides did not reach a truce, however, until 15 July1998, when a three-month cease-fire was arranged to allow emergencyfood relief for the famine-stricken Bahr el-Ghazal Province.In May 2004 the SPLA undertook a cease-fire with the Sudanesegovernment and resumed negotiations that led to a peace agreement on9 January 2005 granting effective autonomy to southern Sudan. On 9July 2005 Garang was sworn in as vice president of Sudan under a constitutionalarrangement making him de facto leader of southern Sudan,but on 30 July 2005 he was killed in the crash of a Ugandan Mi-172helicopter while returning from a visit with President Yoweri Museveniof Uganda. He was succeeded by Salva Kir Mayardit, who becamecommander-in-chief of the SPLA and vice president of Sudan and theeffective leader of southern Sudan. While the SPLA formed a coalitionwith the National Congress Party of President Omar Hasan al-Bashir aspart of the 2005 peace agreement, in which one-third of cabinet positionswere held by SPLA members, the SPLA withdrew from the unitygovernment on 11 October 2007, citing what it claimed were violationsof the peace agreement by the central Sudanese government.At its height the SPLA had 60,000 armed members. Its last knownterrorist attack occurred on 23 August 2001 with the bombing of anoil pipeline in eastern Sudan. It is not designated as a Foreign TerroristOrganization by the U.S. State Department nor regarded as aProscribed Group under the British Terrorism Act of 2000.SUICIDE TERRORISM. Suicide terrorism generally has consistedof bombings in which the bomber willingly sacrifices himself orherself by carrying a bomb, or driving an explosives-laden vehicle,to a target and then detonating the explosive device, knowing thathe or she will be killed along with the intended victims. While this isa tactic specifically associated with Islamic fundamentalist groups,