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South Sudan Independence?

SuN

.:~**~.~**~.~**~:.
Six killed in Southern Sudan clashes before referendum


Six people were killed in clashes between rebel militias and south Sudan's army on Friday and Saturday, the military said, a day before a referendum in which the south is expected to vote for independence.

The attacks cast a shadow over celebrations in other parts of the south -- attended by Hollywood star George Clooney and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter -- of the countdown to Sunday's vote on whether the oil-producing region should secede.

The reports were a reminder of the deep rifts in the undeveloped south, which has been plagued by ethnic killings, rival militias and cattle rustling raids.

Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said his forces ambushed fighters loyal to militia leader Galwak Gai in oil-producing Unity state on Friday and Gai's men launched a counter-attack on Saturday.

"They were coming from the north to disrupt the referendum. It is a known game. The spoilers are always here. They definitely came from Khartoum," he said.

Southern leaders have regularly accused north Sudan of backing militias to try and disrupt the referendum in a bid to keep control of the region's oil. Northern leaders have dismissed the accusations.

Aguer said SPLA forces killed two of Gai's men and captured 26 on Friday, then killed four on Saturday.

WAITING FOR TOMORROW

Gai was among several southern militia leaders who rebelled after April elections, accusing the south's government of fraud.

The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace accord that ended decades of north-south conflict -- Africa's longest civil war that killed an estimated 2 million people. The fighting left deep rifts between southern communities and analysts have warned old tensions could re-emerge to destabilize the region.

The referendum's organizing commission said it had everything in place to start processing around 4 million registered voters for the week-long voting exercise.

"Today we have nothing to do. We are waiting for tomorrow ... A couple of months ago, no one believed this would be possible," Barnaba Mariel Benjamin, chair of the South Sudan Referendum Board (SSRB) said in the south's capital Juba.

Preparations for the vote have been hit by logistical problems and delays. Northern and southern leaders also remain at loggerheads over how they would divide out oil revenues after a split and other issues.

Juba was on Saturday festooned with pro-independence banners as youth groups and campaigners held rallies and spontaneous celebrations in the count down to the vote.

Southern president Salva Kiir repeated promises that there would be no return to war with the north. "We are left only with a few hours to make the most ... important decision of our lifetime. I urge you to make the decision in a peaceful manner," he said in a speech in Juba.

Clooney, a long time campaigner in Sudan, particularly over its separate Darfur conflict, flew back to the capital after a quick visit to the contested central region of Abyei.

"There is such an electricity in the air (in Juba)," he told Reuters. "I've never been around a place that gets to vote for their independence. To see the beginning of a new country, to see a country and a people that has longed for this for generations, to see the excitement that is in their eyes and in their hearts is really something spectacular to be around. It is an honor."

 
Sudanese refugees cast a historic vote

Daniella Miletic
January 10, 2011

SITTING on the centre of Whitten Oval outside the Western Bulldogs clubhouse in Footscray yesterday, Anna Lado, crying, proudly held up her right ink-blackened index finger and described the stain as a gift for her father.

Ms Lado, one of the first in the world to cast a vote that will help decide whether the south Sudan region will secede from the north, said voting at the clubhouse was one of the most important moments in her life.

Having travelled from Adelaide on Saturday night to get to Footscray early yesterday, Ms Lado carefully rubbed her thumb in black ink and pressed it firmly in the circle on the ballot slip that said ''secession'' to cast her vote in favour of splitting from the north.
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She then folded the paper in half, vertically, to avoid her thumb mark re-printing itself onto the first option on the slip for the unity of Sudan.

''My father fought for this and he died,'' she said, crying. She said her father believed in independence before he died from cancer in her homeland in 2007.

''I wish he could come back and see this.

''Now is the day that the pain and all the loss and all the hopelessness that we have been through … the days we can say we have been in the darkness, but we are making the light come through. It is a very special day, very emotional.''

Ms Lado is one of more than 9000 in Australia of south Sudanese origin who have registered for the referendum, which runs until Sunday. As well as at the Bulldogs clubhouse, which Ms Lado travelled to because there is no booth in Adelaide, votes will be cast in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra until Sunday.

People of south Sudanese origin residing outside of their homeland in Britain, the US, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have also been voting

In Sudan, millions of southern Sudanese headed to the polls to cast their vote, which is widely expected to result in the world's newest nation. Votes will be cast during the week-long referendum, which is the last stage in the US-supported peace deal made in 2005 that ended Sudan's bloody civil war.

More than 2 million people died in Sudan's two-decade-long civil war, which pitted the Arab-dominated north against the people of the mostly Christian and animist south.

As part of the peace deal, the south was guaranteed a vote on independence - nearly 3.9 million have registered to vote and a turnout of 60 per cent is required for the result to be valid.

On Saturday night Mayong Akoon, 20, stayed at his cousin's place in Flemington to be closer to the voting booth. Mr Akoon, of Geelong, set his alarm for 2am and arrived at the Whitten Oval at 3am - but he was still more than half-way along the line stretching outside the clubhouse at 11am yesterday. All around, people celebrated with dancing, music and food.

For 45-year-old Jacklin Jamse Nyajuok, yesterday was the happiest day of her of life, comparable only to her wedding day. ''I have to be free in my life, that's why I have to be here … I will remember today as the best day,'' she said.

Peter Agalla, 33, and his five-year-old daughter Kidae also travelled from Adelaide for the vote, starting the drive at about 8pm on Saturday night and arriving in Footscray at 8am.

''This is a glimmer of hope for us. It means everything, what it means to live in a democratic world to wake up and be who you are,'' he said.

While the hundreds who filed into the crowded clubhouse yesterday know there will be challenges ahead, they are optimistic. Ms Lado believes south Sudan will only grow. ''It is not going to be easy. We are going to make a lot of mistakes, but they will be our mistakes and we will learn from them,'' she said.
 
wild stuff, hun. Thank God for your clarity. I wouldn't know shit about this otherwise.
 
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