AFP/Beitiu, Sudan
Southern Sudanese yesterday hailed the election of secessionist former rebel leader Salva Kiir as their regional president as a step forward on the road to independence from Khartoum.
“For us south Sudanese, we congratulate Salva Kiir for being president of south Sudan for the second time so he can take us to the referendum and to independence,” said a man in his 20s in the small southern oil town of Bentiu, who gave his name only as William.
Kiir, the leader of the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, won a second term as president of the autonomous regional government for south Sudan established by a landmark 2005 peace deal with the Khartoum regime, according to official results released yesterday.
That deal, which brought an end to Africa’s longest-running civil war, also provides for a referendum in January next year on full independence for the south, an election in which Kiir has vowed to campaign for a yes vote.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, whose victory in simultaneous national elections earlier this month was also announced yesterday, campaigned for unity but pledged that the vote on independence for the south would go ahead as planned.
William said he was unconcerned about the win for Bashir, who led the Khartoum government for 16 of the 22 years of its devastating civil war with the rebel SPLM.
“We don’t mind if Bashir is elected or not. We don’t care,” he said in Bentiu’s Grand Hotel bar as he sipped beer while watching a soap opera.
On the other side of town in the Green Village bar, news of Kiir’s victory was greeted with restrained clapping.
“Salva Kiir wants to implement the CPA,” SPLM member Zacariah Manyang said, referring to the so-called Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. “That’s why people in the south have again selected him.”
Manyang was less apathetic about the election as national president of Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the Khartoum government’s six-year-old conflict with ethnic minority rebels in the western region of Darfur.
“Nobody in the south is happy for Bashir to come back again,” he said.
“Bashir and his party don’t want to promote peace in southern Sudan. He has reneged on many political agreements but, due to the weak nature of political parties in the north, he won.”
Manyang said Kiir’s election had been widely anticipated, hence the lack of immediate celebrations. But he added that he expected the SPLM leader’s supporters to take to the streets later in the day when the sun was less intense.
Stephen Keah Luony, a student from the southern town of Wau passing through Bentiu, was adamant that independence from Khartoum was the only solution for the underdeveloped and still war-ravaged south.
“We are tired of those in the north taking everything,” he said.
Source: Gulf Times.
Link: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=357776&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17.
Southern Sudanese yesterday hailed the election of secessionist former rebel leader Salva Kiir as their regional president as a step forward on the road to independence from Khartoum.
“For us south Sudanese, we congratulate Salva Kiir for being president of south Sudan for the second time so he can take us to the referendum and to independence,” said a man in his 20s in the small southern oil town of Bentiu, who gave his name only as William.
Kiir, the leader of the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, won a second term as president of the autonomous regional government for south Sudan established by a landmark 2005 peace deal with the Khartoum regime, according to official results released yesterday.
That deal, which brought an end to Africa’s longest-running civil war, also provides for a referendum in January next year on full independence for the south, an election in which Kiir has vowed to campaign for a yes vote.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, whose victory in simultaneous national elections earlier this month was also announced yesterday, campaigned for unity but pledged that the vote on independence for the south would go ahead as planned.
William said he was unconcerned about the win for Bashir, who led the Khartoum government for 16 of the 22 years of its devastating civil war with the rebel SPLM.
“We don’t mind if Bashir is elected or not. We don’t care,” he said in Bentiu’s Grand Hotel bar as he sipped beer while watching a soap opera.
On the other side of town in the Green Village bar, news of Kiir’s victory was greeted with restrained clapping.
“Salva Kiir wants to implement the CPA,” SPLM member Zacariah Manyang said, referring to the so-called Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. “That’s why people in the south have again selected him.”
Manyang was less apathetic about the election as national president of Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the Khartoum government’s six-year-old conflict with ethnic minority rebels in the western region of Darfur.
“Nobody in the south is happy for Bashir to come back again,” he said.
“Bashir and his party don’t want to promote peace in southern Sudan. He has reneged on many political agreements but, due to the weak nature of political parties in the north, he won.”
Manyang said Kiir’s election had been widely anticipated, hence the lack of immediate celebrations. But he added that he expected the SPLM leader’s supporters to take to the streets later in the day when the sun was less intense.
Stephen Keah Luony, a student from the southern town of Wau passing through Bentiu, was adamant that independence from Khartoum was the only solution for the underdeveloped and still war-ravaged south.
“We are tired of those in the north taking everything,” he said.
Source: Gulf Times.
Link: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=357776&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17.
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