I'm a bit envious I must admit.
Guess where the sticking point is:
"40 die in fights over contested Sudan border; Independence vote proceeds smoothly; Results could prompt war" by Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times / January 11, 2011
JUBA, Sudan — As voters continued flooding the polls yesterday for a landmark referendum on southern Sudan’s independence, officials said more than 40 people had been killed over the weekend in intense skirmishes in a contested area along Sudan’s north-south border.
The voting, which began Sunday, is proceeding jubilantly and remarkably smoothly, with high expectations and few serious complaints anywhere across southern Sudan. But if the referendum passes and the south breaks off from the north, the disputed border will become the next issue to resolve, and some fear that the specter of an all-out border war is rising.
The Abyei area, an oil-producing region that Khartoum is trying to keep in its control, is considered the most combustible and intractable of all the disputed areas. Both the north and the south claim historic ties to it and are refusing to budge. Some Western analysts have called Abyei “Sudan’s Jerusalem.’’
***********
Around Abyei, those fractures have already become violent. According to elders of the nomadic Misseriya people, who roam across the Abyei area and are aligned with the northern Sudanese government in Khartoum, southern soldiers shelled their camps, slaughtered their cattle and killed more than 10 civilians over the weekend.
Aren't those our guys?
Despite fears of mounting tensions, southern Sudan may surprise its doubters. In a way, it already has.
After all the doomsday talk and fretting about whether the south was even capable of holding the referendum, or whether it would be delayed or chaotic, voting seems to be going well. Thousands of people lined up once again before dawn on yesterday, though the crowds in Juba were not nearly as large as on Sunday.
This is a country where more than three-quarters of adults cannot read....
Most people here in Juba, the southern capital, were unaware of the rising tensions along the border, which is several hundred miles away. Voters continued to pour into polling places yesterday, to dance and whistle and sing, and to talk excitedly about how secession will bring new bridges, new roads, new schools, new hospitals, new jobs, even new food....
Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president who is in Sudan observing the election, said the sky-high hopes reminded him of the heady days of the 1960s when so many Africans broke free from their colonial masters....
Though the north-south civil war has often been simplified as a battle between the Christian and animist south versus Arab rulers in the north, the south itself is very diverse.
Yeah, EVER NOTICE the Christian-Muslim tension is USUALLY ABOUT SOMETHING else entirely!?!?
It is home to Christians, animists and Muslims; scores of ethnic groups and dozens of languages; traditional people whose lives revolve around cows and more modern people who worship cash....
That second group seems to bring about ruination to any country, don't they?
The outcome will most likely be an overwhelming vote for secession, which means Sudan will then begin the delicate process of splitting and a new, poor, landlocked, and very hopeful nation will soon be born....
Just wondering why KASHMIR doesn't get a vote.
It is not only the southern Sudanese who are excited by all this. Other separatist regions in Africa, and there are many of them — the Ogaden in Ethiopia; Western Sahara; the Cabinda enclave of Angola and the breakaway region of Somaliland, to name a few — may be encouraged to push harder for independence now that the African Union and Western powers have made an exception to their longstanding dislike of redrawing borders.
Is that the same one Kosovo got?
And when was the last time you heard about the Ogaden, huh?
Oh, right, Ethiopia is an ally and the local armed enforcer.
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While you are waiting in line to vote::
"Sudan leader vows support for south; Bashir seeking cooperation in event of secession" by Maggie Fick, Associated Press / January 5, 2010
JUBA, Sudan — The need to maintain strong economic ties with the south if it becomes a new nation as expected may be why President Omar al-Bashir is playing nice....
I'm sick of media insults.
Analysts said his remarks reflected a growing realization that the Sudanese government, also battling insurgencies in the east and west, could not delay the weeklong referendum on independence in the south that starts Sunday. They also illustrate the economic co-dependence between the oil-rich south and the north, where oil pipelines run to the sea.
The mainly Christian south is widely expected to vote for secession from the mainly Muslim north. Southern Sudanese are still haunted by the war that left 2 million people dead. Northern tribes supported by the government launched slave raids into the south, and the military bombed villages built of grass and sticks....
“The writing is on the wall,’’ said Jon Temin, a Sudan specialist at the United States Institute of Peace. “The referendum is going to happen, and the international community is putting its support behind it. This is increasingly apparent to Khartoum and that does affect their behavior.’’
Activists have been warning that the unstable region, still populated by unpredictable militias, risks a return to violence. But Bashir’s remarks seemed designed to allay those fears and help ensure a continuous flow of southern oil through the pipelines of the north....
Sudan still faces rebellions in all of its other outlying regions, a consequence of government policies that concentrate wealth in the hands of a narrow Islamist elite while leaving most of the country impoverished.
As opposed to the narrow Zionist/Globalist elite of AmeriKa that have taken such good care of us.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. UN officials say the war in Darfur has claimed at least 300,000 lives since it began in 2003 through violence, disease, and displacement. Bashir and two other men linked to his government have refused to appear before the court or recognize its jurisdiction.
When the U.N hauls Bush, Bliar, and the coterie of Israeli war criminals in fron of their bar then I will listen.
“Even if [Bashir] says he will support us from the south, we don’t need his support. If he is in a position to support us, then why did he not support us before, during these 21 years of war?’’ asked Steven Valentino, 23.
Southerners say the Khartoum-based government repeatedly sought to delay the vote, withholding funding and citing logistical difficulties and unresolved disputes. Khartoum obstructed a census held in 2008 by refusing to share data with the south and even launched several bombing raids in southern territory in early December.
But Bashir was all smiles as he walked on a red carpet after landing in Juba. A marching band played and an honor guard of troops stood at attention as Salva Kiir, a former rebel who is president of Southern Sudan, welcomed him. The two men held closed-door discussions on the status of the disputed region of Abyei and postreferendum relations.
Even if the south votes to secede, the two nations will remain locked in economic dependency. The south cannot export its oil resources without using a pipeline that runs through northern territory. And the pipeline is useless for the north unless it is fed with southern oil. Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer....
At bottom of it all is oil.
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"Southern Sudan sees dream of independence near reality; After decades of war, it’s eager for secession vote" by Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times / January 9, 2011
JUBA, Sudan — The US government pushed the northern and southern Sudanese to sign a peace treaty in 2005 that set the vote in motion.
A few months ago, US officials voiced concern that Sudan could revert to civil war if the referendum was mishandled. But yesterday, Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, who is in Sudan to monitor the election, said those risks had been significantly reduced.
Still, the proud, new African country will step onto the world stage with shaky legs. As it stands now, southern Sudan is one of the poorest places on earth. Decades of civil war and marginalization have left the economy so crushed that just about everything is imported, down to eggs.
And weapons.
According to Oxfam, a teenage girl has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than finishing elementary school.
At least wars and banks are well taken care of in this world.
Tens of thousands have flocked back to take part in the referendum, and some analysts, possibly reinforcing stereotypes of Africa as always teetering on the edge, warn that south Sudan could be the next Somalia, awash in violence.
Kerry says no.
Two rebel groups clashed with the southern Sudan army late Friday and yesterday in an apparent effort to disrupt the vote, leaving at least nine dead, the Associated Press reported.
Already, aid agencies are sounding the alarm about a lack of food, water, health care, and sanitation. “We have an unfolding humanitarian crisis, layered on top of an existing and forsaken one,’’ said the International Rescue Committee, an American aid organization that works in Sudan.
But the POLITICS is the THING!
But this is a land of shared sacrifice, and that may be a cohesive force that helps hold southern Sudan together. After all the years of guerrilla warfare and hardship, oppression, and persecution at the hands of the Arabs who rule Sudan, people here are deeply invested in holding a peaceful referendum and building the world’s newest nation....
So WHEN does Kashmir get THEIR VOTE?!
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Oh, it was a New York Times piece. That explains the anti-Arab slant.
"Much of Kerry’s efforts in Sudan have centered on presenting the Obama administration’s offer of incentives to Arab leaders of the north, including removal from the state sponsors of terrorism list, to encourage them to accept the loss of a third of their territory and a significant portion of their oil. Yesterday, Kerry seemed optimistic that the possibility of renewed war had been averted.
I'm ALWAYS GLAD when WAR is AVERTED!
Kerry stopped to have dinner with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his way back to Washington.
Had to check in with his master.
--more--"
Related: Southern Sudan votes on split
Locally and globally, Sudanese vote on independence
Harvard team to analyze Sudan satellite images
Bombings in Sudan violated peace deal
Also see: Splitting Up Sudan
