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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Jan 09 2011 - 13:08:33 EST
Millions vote in South Sudan independence poll
Sun Jan 9, 2011 5:42pm GMT
* Africa's largest country faces split in two
* Concern over clashes in Abyei border region
* President Bashir has promised to accept result of vote
* Sadness, resignation in north
(Adds background, first day of voting ends, edits)
By Jason Benham and Jeremy Clarke
JUBA, Sudan, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Millions of jubilant south Sudanese voted on
Sunday in an independence referendum expected to see the largely non-Muslim
region splitting away from the Arab-led north to create Africa's newest
nation.
People queued for hours in the burning sun outside polling stations in the
southern capital Juba, and many were turned away as the first day of voting
in the week-long ballot ended around sundown. Southerners view the poll as a
new beginning after decades of civil war and perceived repression by north
Sudan.
"This is the moment the people of southern Sudan have been waiting for,"
southern president Salva Kiir said after casting his ballot, urging people
to be patient as they waited to vote.
"I am voting for separation," said Nhial Wier, a veteran of the north-south
civil war that led up to the vote. "This day marks the end of my struggles.
In the army I was fighting for freedom. I was fighting for separation."
African nations who hope to profit from a new neighbour but fear the split
could buoy secessionists in their own countries will watch closely as Sudan
agrees the mechanics of a split -- a disputed border, citizenship and
sharing of the key oil resources are all still potential flashpoints.
Hours after voting started, the celebratory atmosphere was marred by reports
of fresh fighting between Arab nomads and tribespeople associated with the
south in the contested oil-rich Abyei region that borders north and south.
The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending a civil war which
has raged on and off since 1955, fuelled by oil and ethnicity, between the
mostly Muslim north and the south, where most people follow Christianity and
traditional beliefs. The war left two million dead and displaced four
million people.
The deal allowed Juba to create a semi-autonomous government with its own
constitution, laws and parliament.
In the north, the prospect of losing a quarter of the country's land mass --
and the source of most of its oil -- has been greeted with resignation and
some resentment.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who campaigned for unity in the
run-up to the vote, has been making increasingly conciliatory comments and
this month promised to join independence celebrations, if that was the
outcome.
President Barack Obama said on Saturday a peaceful, orderly referendum could
help put Sudan back on a path toward normal relations with the United States
after years of sanctions.
In Juba, actor George Clooney and U.S. Senator John Kerry mingled with
dancing and singing crowds dressed up to the nines. Voters waiting outside
one polling station burst into a rendition of the hymn "This is the day that
the Lord has made".
"It is something to see people actually voting for their freedom. That's not
something you see often in your life," Clooney told Reuters.
SADNESS IN NORTH
In the north, emotions were also running high. "We feel an incredible
sadness that a ... very loved part of Sudan will separate from us," said
northern opposition Umma Party official Sara Nuqdullah.
"We must now work to reassure the northerners in the south and southerners
in the north and the tribes in the border zone that they will not be
harmed," she said, breaking down in tears.
The vote's organising commission told Reuters it had defied gloomy forecasts
of delays to deliver all voting materials on time for Sunday's deadline.
The logistical achievements have not been matched by political progress.
Southerners went to the polls without knowing how the two countries will
share assets, debts or disentangle a complicated citizenship issue.
The two sides have been locked in negotiations for months over how they
might share out oil revenues -- the lifeblood of both their economies -- and
settle other issues after secession.
The south also will have to face up to its own internal ethnic rivalries and
a bitter dispute with the north remains over the ownership of the central
Abyei region, where there were reports of clashes on Sunday for the third
day in a row.
Norway, Britain and the United States, who formed a troika to support the
2005 peace deal, welcomed the start of voting as a historic step in a joint
statement, but added: "The situation in Abyei remains of deep concern".
Polls were due to close at 1400 GMT, but voting hours would be extended from
Monday until 1500 GMT, the commission said.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens and Opheera McDoom in Khartoum;
writing by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
C Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
Key facts about Sudan's disputed Abyei region
Sun Jan 9, 2011 10:27am GMT
KHARTOUM Jan 9 (Reuters) - Armed Arab nomads killed at least one person in a
series of clashes in Sudan's contested Abyei region, stoking tensions at the
start of an independence referendum in south Sudan, officials said on
Sunday.
Here are some facts about the region which many fear could spark further
north-south violence during and after the politically sensitive plebiscite.
WHY ABYEI?
Abyei sits on Sudan's ill-defined north-south border and is claimed by both
halves of the country. In many ways it is a microcosm of all the conflicts
that have split Sudan for decades -- an explosive mix of ethnic tension,
ambiguous boundaries, oil and age-old suspicion and resentment.
Northerners and southerners fought hard over it during decades of civil war
and have continued to clash there even after the 2005 peace deal that ended
the war and set up the referendum.
Abyei contains rich pastureland, water and, after a recent re-drawing of its
boundary, one significant oilfield -- Defra, part of a block run by the
Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium led by
China's CNPC.
It also has emotional, symbolic and strategic significance.
A number of leading figures from the south's dominant party the Sudan
People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) hail from the area. Many southerners see
the fight for Abyei as an emblem of their long struggle against perceived
oppression.
For several months a year, Abyei is also used by Arab Misseriya nomads -- a
well-armed group that provided proxy militias for Khartoum during the
north-south war.
The Misseriya claim centuries-old rights to use the land for their livestock
and Khartoum will have to back them to the hilt if it wants to keep them as
allies. Abyei's Dinka Ngok tribe, with its ethnic links to the south, also
claims its own historical ownership rights.
CURRENT STATUS
Abyei currently has a special administrative status, governed by an
administration made up of officials from the SPLM and President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir's northern National Congress Party (NCP). It is also watched over
by Joint Integrated Units made up of northern and southern troops and
police. In reality those units remain far from integrated and soldiers from
both sides have been caught up in the fighting.
SETTLEMENT EFFORTS
Abyei proved so intractable that it was left unresolved in the 2005
Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the north- south civil war.
Instead residents were promised their own Jan. 9 referendum on whether to
join the north or the south. Plans for that vote have been left in limbo
after a series of bitter disputes -- chiefly over the position of Abyei's
borders and over who counted as Abyei residents with the right to vote.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague came closest to solving the
first in 2009 by re-drawing Abyei's boundaries, ceding several other key
oilfields to the north. The SPLM and the NCP accepted the ruling but the
Misseriya rejected it saying it still put too much of their pastureland
inside Abyei. They have resisted official efforts to demarcate the new
border.
The Dinka Ngok and Misseriya also remain at loggerheads over who gets to
vote. The Dinka say only that a handful of settled Misseriya tradespeople
count as residents. The Misseriya are demanding equal voting rights to the
Dinka.
In the absence of a separate Abyei referendum, northern and southern leaders
have promised to hammer out another settlement backed by mediation from the
African Union and Washington. Various suggestions - including one that would
cut Abyei in half, have been rejected outright by one side or the other.
Abyei residents threatened to hold their own referendum if the official
plebiscite did not take place but that has so far not emerged.
WHY IT MATTERS
If north and south Sudan do eventually go back to war, it could easily be
Abyei that sees the first fighting. Any return to north-south conflict would
have a disastrous impact on the nine fragile countries that surround Sudan.
A settlement of Abyei would clear a huge stumbling block to Sudan's tortuous
peace process and allow the sides to concentrate on equally explosive and
unresolved issues, like how they would share out their oil revenues after a
split. (Reporting by Andrew Heavens; editing by Myra MacDonald)
C Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved
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