Early results show big aye for South Sudan
JUBA: Southern Sudan's president on Sunday offered a prayer of forgiveness for northern Sudan and the killings that occurred during a two-decade civil war, as the first results from a weeklong independence referendum showed an overwhelming vote for secession.
Exhausted poll workers who counted ballots overnight and deep into Sunday morning posted returns at individual stations, and a count of a small sample showed a 96% vote for secession.
Sudan's south ended its independence vote on Saturday, a vote most everyone believes will split Africa's largest country in two at the divide between Sudan's Muslim north and Christian and animist south. The two sides ended a more than two decade civil war in 2005 in a peace deal that provided for last week's vote.
If everything stays on track, by July Southern Sudan should be the world's newest nation . At a church service Sunday, Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir a stoic man not known for showing emotion smiled, gently clapped and swayed during a service that took on a jubilant and celebratory air.
"For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of the struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace and, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have forcibly caused their death,'' Kiir said.
There were scattered attacks in Southern Sudan last week and in the contested region of Abyei, but the vote was peaceful, earning the praise of international observers and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon . Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu said Sunday: "What we have in front of us is peace."
US president Obama commended the people and the government of Sudan on the successful completion of its referendum. "The sight of so many Sudanese casting their votes in a peaceful and orderly fashion was an inspiration to the world and a tribute to the determination of the people and leaders of south Sudan to forge a better future," he said. AGENCIES
Exhausted poll workers who counted ballots overnight and deep into Sunday morning posted returns at individual stations, and a count of a small sample showed a 96% vote for secession.
Sudan's south ended its independence vote on Saturday, a vote most everyone believes will split Africa's largest country in two at the divide between Sudan's Muslim north and Christian and animist south. The two sides ended a more than two decade civil war in 2005 in a peace deal that provided for last week's vote.
If everything stays on track, by July Southern Sudan should be the world's newest nation . At a church service Sunday, Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir a stoic man not known for showing emotion smiled, gently clapped and swayed during a service that took on a jubilant and celebratory air.
"For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of the struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace and, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have forcibly caused their death,'' Kiir said.
There were scattered attacks in Southern Sudan last week and in the contested region of Abyei, but the vote was peaceful, earning the praise of international observers and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon . Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu said Sunday: "What we have in front of us is peace."
US president Obama commended the people and the government of Sudan on the successful completion of its referendum. "The sight of so many Sudanese casting their votes in a peaceful and orderly fashion was an inspiration to the world and a tribute to the determination of the people and leaders of south Sudan to forge a better future," he said. AGENCIES
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