 A South Sudanese woman casts her vote at a polling station during the referendum in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan, in the border between South and North Sudan, on Sunday. Zohra Bensemra / Reuters |
JUBA / KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan's southerners began to vote to decide whether the region will remain united with the north or secede to establish an independent state, as a referendum started here on Sunday.
The referendum is a major item in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005, which ended a two-decade civil war between north and south Sudan, that left around 2 million dead.
The vote started at the polling centers in both south and north at 8 am local time and will last till 5 pm.
Salva Kiir Mayardit, First Vice-President of Sudan and President of the Government of South Sudan, cast the first ballot in Juba at a polling station at the museum of John Garang, founder of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
John Kerry, Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations told Xinhua while he observed the voting process: "I'm very excited. It's very important. I hope it will be a peaceful referendum."
Asked about the controversial issues including border demarcation and the status of the oil-rich Abyei region, Kerry said: "I think the controversial issues can be resolved as we work in good faith."
"The issues can be solved within the six-month transition period," he said.
The voting process will last for seven days to end on Jan 15.
The southern Sudanese residing in north and south Sudan and outside Sudan have the right to participate in the referendum where 60 percent of the registered voters should cast their votes for the referendum to be valid.
If the south voted for the independence, Sudan would enter a six-month transition period when the north and south would negotiate on thorny issues including border demarcation, the status of the oil-rich Abyei region, as well as the division of the national debts and oil revenue.
People waited in queue for hundreds of meters for the voting at the polling station at John Garang museum. Voters danced and sang slogans such as "Freedom is burning" ahead of the referendum.
Deng Ayok, a 28-year-old university student who stopped his study in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, and returned to the south in November, led his family to vote at Juba University on Sunday morning.
"I hope the referendum can reflect our will and lead to a permanent peace and stability of all Sudanese people," he said. "We had suffered so much during the civil war. We need dignity and human rights in a peaceful and stable land."
Barnaba Benjamin, minister of information and spokesman of the southern Sudanese government expressed his confidence in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday that the southern Sudanese would vote for the independence of the region in the referendum.
"The southerners will opt for separation and establish an independent state," he said.
He held the successive governments in north Sudan since Sudan's independence in 1956 responsible for failure to boost the emotion for unity among the southern Sudanese citizens.
"Since 1956, the southern Sudanese suffered from war, death, hunger, thirst and lack of development," he said.
However, the leading member of SPLM in southern Sudan affirmed that the emerging southern Sudan state, in case of separation, would not be hostile to north Sudan and it would never seek war.
"The Comprehensive Peace Agreement was basically meant to achieve peace, so separation of south Sudan will never lead to war, " he noted.
While observers believe the voters would overwhelmingly choose secession, some northern Sudanese people still bear a ray of hope for unity.
"Why separation? We (the north and the south) are one nation. The northerners and the southerners can live together peacefully," 30-year-old Sayed Radi, a mobile shop owner in Khartoum said before the referendum. "The separation of the south will make our country weaker, as we will lose a lot of oil."
source:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-01/10/content_11815435.htm
