Lakes state welcomes referendum results

By Manyang Mayom

January 30, 2011 (RUMBEK) – The Governor of Lakes state Chol Tong Mayay, has welcomed the announcement of that 99% of voters in southern Sudan’s referendum voted for independence. The Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau gave the figures in Juba the regions capital.

Governor Mayay called upon the public of Lakes state to stay calm until the final results are released in Khartoum in February. He said that the result met the interest of Southerner who he said had been suppressed by Khartoum ruling for several years.

Sudan’s south has fought two civil wars against the north the most recent from 1983 to 2005 resulted in the death of around two million people and displaced around four million.

Mayay added that building the prospective new nation will now be the focus of South Sudanese. He said the south should respect the value of human rights, and allow the the people of Southern Sudan to exercise democratic freedom.

The mood in Lakes state appears cheerful after hearing the referendum results, which favor secession of South Sudan from Khartoum regime.

The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) chairman Chan Reech Madut, has announced that 99.5 percent of voters in the 10 southern states have voted for separation.

Announcing the results at the Dr John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, the head of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau, Chan Reech Madut, called on the people of southern Sudan keep calm after the announcement of the results.

Overall, 98.83 percent of votes all in the Sudan and in the Diaspora were for separation, the head of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil said. Detailing the results, he said 58 percent of those voting in centers in north Sudan voted for separation, while 42 percent voted for unity.
He added that 98 percent of southerners in Diaspora voted for separation.

One tradesman in Rumbek town, Taban Lomi told Sudan Tribune “the secession of South Sudan is a great solution to Khartoum government to understand that wrong system was on stage for long time in Sudan.”

He said that thousands of people become the victim of power in Khartoum and rights of people had been seriously undermined by Khartoum rule. He said separation from Khartoum was the solution for the south.

Govennor Tong said that the Lakes state government is lobbying for the Southern Sudan government to come to Rumbek to celebrate the independence of Southern Sudan if results the result for separation.

He said that it would be appropriate as Rumbek was where John Garang the former leader of the southern rebels the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) who fought the government, until a 2005 peace deal, gave his last speech before he died in a helicopter crash later that year.

Tong also said that Rumbek had hosted SPLM during critical moments of the civil war. For this reason he said Rumbek deserved to be given respect by Government of Southern Sudan and the celebrations held there. He also said that celebrations should be held in Rumbek as members of the SPLM from that area had chosen not to split from the SPLM, when a breakaway movement formed in 1991.

He also said that Rumbek was the home town of many southern leaders.

(ST)