Youth and women stage process in support of separation of South Sudan

July 9, 2010 (JUBA/RUMBEK/BOR) – Southern Sudanese youth have staged a peaceful procession in Juba and other main towns in support of independence of the region in a referendum due to be held next year.

Thousands of youth members from various political parties, including the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), crisscrossed the streets of Juba, Bor Rumbek, Aweil and other twons on Friday on foot and in convoys of cars, chanting the slogans ‘Yes for Separation’ and ‘Let My People Go’ as written on placards.

In Juba, civil society organizations and church leaders joined the match which began from 9:00AM until the afternoon hours in a rainy weather. Members of Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, led by the Controller of parliament and chairman of the SPLM Caucus, Peter Bashir Bandi, also spearheaded the procession.

The youth claimed that the unity of Sudan has been a failed trial since 1956 when the country gained its independence. “The so-called unity of Sudan has never been healthy since 1956. It has produced only wars, underdevelopment in the South and lack of common identity in the country in addition to countless other injustices,” said Daniel Wani, member of Southern Sudan Youth for Separation.

“The only acceptable option left would be to split the country in the referendum so that each region would try its luck and put its own house in order in terms of its identity as well as political and economic development,” he said.

David Amuor, addressing a large crowd of excited youth said the South wants independence as an answer to the question inquiring what the South wants. “Northerners have been asking unanswered question for generations that what does the South want,” Amuor said, and added that the answer is that the South wants independence.

Also Abyei youth representatives speaking on behalf of the people of Abyei said the region wants to join the South in the referendum.

Similar processions are also reported in other states of Southern Sudan during which the youth called for potential voters to vote for secession in the referendum.

In a separate procession, a group calling itself ‘women and mothers’ also matched in thousands through the streets and converged at the region’s parliament, expressing their support to the separation of Southern Sudan.

The women and mothers called on the CPA partners to conduct the referendum on time without any delay in a free and fair exercise.

Addressing the women’s procession, the Deputy Speaker of the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, Daniel Awet Akot, said the people of Southern Sudan will not accept any other floating idea such as confederation as a substitution for separation.

In Bor Students from Jonglei state marched under the theme ‘Youth for Separation. Yes for Separation’. “It is better to be a free poor man in your own country,” Peter Deng who took part in the procession told the Sudan Tribune.

In contrast to the views expressed by the students, at the end of the march in Bor the Governor of Jonglei State, Kuol Manyang Juuk, said that unity with the north was an option that should be attached to development funding from the central government in Khartoum.

Also an estimated 1,000 primary and secondary school students marched in Rumbek, the capital of Lakes state. Primary school student of Ager-gum, said the students wanted “complete independence from Khartoum”.

Another student, Peter Manyiel, told Sudan Tribune “I don’t need Sharia Law any longer to govern my southern brothers in Khartoum… We need to be independent from Khartoum so that we can establish an independent constitution.”

The marches are part of a series of initiatives planned by the SPLM Youth League to promote separation and demand that the referendum takes place as scheduled on January 9, 2011. As well as the SPLM Youth League, the SPLM has also formed the SPLM Students League and SPLM Women’s League to advocate independence for the south.

Despite the partisan nature of the demonstration by the SPLM Youth League, the Lakes State Assistant Secretary for Political Affairs, Malou Moses Majok, said that the SPLM are using the marches and rallies to educate the public about the referendum on secession for Southern Sudan and the contested oil rich Abyei region.

In Khartoum, the dominant National Congress Party (NCP) launched a campaign in favor of the unity of the country mobilizing its supporters from southern Sudanese and SPLM figures like Malik Aggar who is supportive to Sudan’s unity.

Today in Khartoum, the organization of the political parties and formations, a coalition including the NCP and some other small parties, said it would send a letter to the President of the Government of South Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit demanding to allow the political forces in the north and the south to hold open meetings with citizens in the south to ensure the success of the referendum process and support the unity of Sudan.

The referendum is part the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005 between former rebels the SPLM and Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party. The deal created a power sharing national government, a semi-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan dominated by the SPLM and a formula to share Sudan’s oil wealth, which is mainly in the south.

With just over six months left until the referendum many issues still need to be resolved. Voter registration has yet to begin and the controversial border between North and South needs to be demarcated. There is also no provision in the existing agreement for how to divide Sudan’s oil after January 9, 2011 when the current deal expires.

(ST)