Sudan vote points to secession
Source: Agencies |
January 17, 2011, Monday
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SOUTHERN Sudan's president yesterday offered a prayer of forgiveness for Northern Sudan and the killings from a two-decade civil war, as the first results from a week-long independence referendum showed a vote for secession.
Exhausted poll workers who counted ballots overnight and deep into yesterday morning posted returns at individual stations, and a count of a small sample showed a 96 percent vote for secession.
Sudan's south ended its independence vote on Saturday, a vote most everyone believes will split Africa's largest country in two at the divide between Sudan's Muslim north and Christian and animist south. The two sides ended a more than two decade civil war in 2005 in a peace deal that provided for last week's vote.
If everything stays on track, by July Southern Sudan should be the world's newest nation.
At a church service yesterday, Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir - a stoical man not known for showing emotion - smiled, gently clapped and swayed during a service.
"For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of the struggle, may god bless them with eternal peace and, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have caused their death," Kiir said.
There were scattered attacks in Southern Sudan last week and in the contested region of Abyei, but the vote was peaceful, earning the praise of international observers and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu said yesterday: "What we have in front of us is peace."
"My reaction is just happiness," said Okula Thomas, a 24-year-old university student who waits tables at an Ethiopian restaurant. "We are going to get our -freedom, we will get development, and life will change."
Sudan's ruling party in the north said last Friday it was ready to accept southern independence. Border demarcation, oil rights and the status of the contested region of Abyei - the most difficult issue on the table - still have to be negotiated.
Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, the chairman of the south's referendum commission, said 83 percent of those registered in the south and 53 percent of those registered in the north had cast votes. Khalil said he believed the -referendum would be judged as "a good result by any international standard," noting that the commission set up the vote in just four months.
Exhausted poll workers who counted ballots overnight and deep into yesterday morning posted returns at individual stations, and a count of a small sample showed a 96 percent vote for secession.
Sudan's south ended its independence vote on Saturday, a vote most everyone believes will split Africa's largest country in two at the divide between Sudan's Muslim north and Christian and animist south. The two sides ended a more than two decade civil war in 2005 in a peace deal that provided for last week's vote.
If everything stays on track, by July Southern Sudan should be the world's newest nation.
At a church service yesterday, Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir - a stoical man not known for showing emotion - smiled, gently clapped and swayed during a service.
"For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of the struggle, may god bless them with eternal peace and, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have caused their death," Kiir said.
There were scattered attacks in Southern Sudan last week and in the contested region of Abyei, but the vote was peaceful, earning the praise of international observers and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu said yesterday: "What we have in front of us is peace."
"My reaction is just happiness," said Okula Thomas, a 24-year-old university student who waits tables at an Ethiopian restaurant. "We are going to get our -freedom, we will get development, and life will change."
Sudan's ruling party in the north said last Friday it was ready to accept southern independence. Border demarcation, oil rights and the status of the contested region of Abyei - the most difficult issue on the table - still have to be negotiated.
Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, the chairman of the south's referendum commission, said 83 percent of those registered in the south and 53 percent of those registered in the north had cast votes. Khalil said he believed the -referendum would be judged as "a good result by any international standard," noting that the commission set up the vote in just four months.
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