Aweil bishop calls for peaceful conduct of referendum

By Ngor Arol Garang

July 23, 2010 (WUNROK) – Abraham Yel Nhial, the Episcopal Bishop of Sudan for the newly created diocese of Aweil, on Friday called for the peaceful conduct of the upcoming referendum on southern succession scheduled to take place in January 2011.

The referendum was agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal between Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party and the former southern rebel group the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – SPLM. Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) the SPLM have governed southern Sudan as a semi-autonomous region for the last five years.

The bishop called on the two parties of the CPA to conclude discussions on key pending issues, such as demarcating the border between north and south, before the referendum is conducted.

“As [a] church, we call on two peace partners to accelerate their discussions over key sticking points and work on joint plans to ensure [the] peaceful and successful conduct of the upcoming referendum without delay,” he said.

“Our people must rise up to challenges facing us at this critical time in the history of our country and seek ways to address them as one and the same people regardless of whatever differences that might been created by evil acts in the past. We must sit down as one and the same family to resolve our differences as children and people of God.”

Bishop Nhial was elected as the first bishop of the newly created Aweil diocese on Friday 16, July 2010, in the regional capital of Juba. The bishops of Yirola and Cueibet in Lakes State and Wad Medeni in northern Sudan were elected at the same ceremony.

Bishop Nhial was also consecrated as the bishop of the new diocese on Sunday 18 and returned to Aweil, capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal on Friday 23 July 2010.

Despite contesting the position with two other candidates, Nhial won the ballot by a huge margin gaining 83 votes from 92 delegates.

After the vote the defeated candidates, Reverend Mathew Garang Chimiir who received seven votes and Angelo Yuet who received two, shook hands with the elected Bishop Nhial and pledged to work with him.

“We will work together with Abraham Yel [Nhial] as the new bishop. This is what I had wanted. I had wanted [a] bishop to be elected so that we [could] have a diocese in Aweil,” Reverend Mathew Garang Chimiir said in an interview with Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

Reverend Angelo Yuet also affirmed his support to the new bishop, saying God has answered prayers of people of Northern Bahr el Ghazal to have a diocese of their own.

“Our prayers have been answered by this election of the new bishop to create a new diocese. That was why I accepted calls to contest so that there is a bishop for Aweil. We will work together with Bishop Abraham [Yet Nhial] in order to bring peace and unity in the church so that it becomes a role model in the society and the region,” Reverend Angelo Yuet told Sudan Tribune from Aweil on Friday.

Reverend Stephen Mayuen Mou and William Mou Deng, who observed the elections, described it as a free and fair exercise and urged politicians to adopt the way churches conduct their elections.

“If April elections were conducted the way our election was conducted, I believe there would have been no differences that still exist in the region now,” said Reverend William Mou Deng.

The European Union who observed April’s presidential, regional and local elections described the process as flawed and short of international standards.

In southern Sudan the SPLM won over 90% of the vote with opposition parties accusing them of fraud and intimidation. While in the north the NCP also consolidated their dominant position winning 60% of the votes and the vast majority of seats.

Bishop Nhial’s address to the audience at his consecration ceremony was attended by senior government officials including Marial Benjamin who attended on behalf of Salva Kiir the president of the regional government of South Sudan.

Nhial, thanked the church and government for the support they given him and described his vision for the diocese.

“My vision for the Diocese of Aweil is to build a united, caring, growing, worshipping and mature Episcopal Church of Sudan, faithful to Anglican traditions and grounded in the Scripture – word of God – capable of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with non believers; for holistic transformation of church and society in Aweil, Sudan and the world to the Glory of God,” said Bishop Nhial.

Unlike the mainly Islamic north many southern Sudanese are Christian and the church plays a large role in public life.

Last week senior figures in the southern Sudanese clergy called for their congregations to vote against unity and for secession in January’s poll.

(ST)