sentences:  However, at a meeting of SPLA top brass held in Rumbek, in December 2004, one month before the signing of the CPA, Dr. Garang made it clear that those speculations were just that; only speculations, without any basis for truth.In December 2008, Nhial Deng Nhial was appointed "Minister of SPLA and Veterans Affairs" by the then President of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, replacing General Dominic Dim Deng who died in a plane crash on 2 May 2008.He returned to the South Sudanese cabinet with the military rank of Lieutenant General in the SPLA.