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South Sudan leader wants ’coexistence’ with north

08 January 2011 23:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. South Sudanese president Salva Kiir said on Saturday that there was no alternative to peaceful coexistence with the north as his people prepared to vote on independence after five decades of conflict, APA reports quoting AFP.
"Today there is no return to war," Kiir said, speaking in the grounds of the presidential state house in the southern regional capital Juba. "There is no substitute for peaceful coexistence.
"Fellow compatriots, we are left only with a few hours to make the most vital and extremely important decision of our lifetime.
"The referendum is not the end of the journey but rather the beginning of a new one," he added, alluding to the six-month transitional period to recognition as an independent state stipulated by the 2005 peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the southern rebels.
Euphoria gripped the regional capital Juba on the eve of the launch of the week-long polling as people feted the looming end of the long and often difficult countdown.
At candlelit roadside teastalls and outside darkened corrugated-iron shacks, one of the world’s most impoverished populations sat around late into the night eagerly waiting to seize the opportunity to break away from rule by Khartoum.
But the celebrations were marred by deadly clashes between the southern army and renegade militiamen in remote Unity State on the border with the north whose oilfields were a key fighting point in the 1983-2005 civil war.
Southern troops killed six militiamen and captured 32 in the two days of fighting without sustaining any casualties, military spokesman Philip Aguer said.
Unity state is an area where renegade militiamen remain active, and the bloodshed highlighted the fragility of the uneasy peace that has been established over most of the south.
Kiir said the regional authorities had done all they could to ensure a peaceful referendum, deploying 60,000 police and troops, and urged the 3.8 million registered voters to reciprocate during the polling period.
"From our side as the government of southern Sudan, we promise you an atmosphere of calm and guaranteed security, as you exercise your democratic right to determine your destiny according to your free will," he said.
"I urge you all to make your decision in a peaceful manner, as we end the long journey of the accomplishment of the (peace) agreement."
Kiir was joined at the presidential state house by US Senator John Kerry, who praised both northern and southern leaders as he wrapped up a week-long diplomatic push by Washington to ensure the referendum goes ahead smoothly.
Speaking after their talks, Kerry said it was an "extraordinary moment and something that the whole world should take pride in."
Kerry, who chairs the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was optimistic that key outstanding issue between north and south -- such as the sharing of oil revenues, debt and citizenship -- could be resolved.
"If people execute in good faith, I believe many of those decisions can be made in a matter of weeks or months and they could be made well before July," he said.
But Hollywood star George Clooney struck a lone note of pessimism, warning in an AFP interview of the dangers of a new flare-up between north and south over key border areas that remain in dispute, like the oil district of Abyei which he visited on Friday.
"That’s why we are sort of the skunk in the room at everybody’s party right now, cause everybody is excited," he acknowledged after returning to the festive mood in Juba.
Thousands attended an array of free events in the city on Friday night, including a "final walk to freedom" concert at which local musicians, including former child soldier turned international singer Emmanuel Jal, performed songs about peace and freedom.
The conflict between the Muslim, mainly Arab north, and the African, mainly Christian south, has blighted Africa’s largest nation virtually since independence from Britain in 1956, fuelled by religion, ethnicity, ideology and resources, particularly oil.
In an interview aired late on Friday, President Omar al-Bashir, an army man who led the brutal civil war with the rebels for a decade and a half before finally striking the 2005 peace deal, said he still did not believe the south was ready for independence.
"The south does not have the ability to provide for its citizens, or create a state or authority," Bashir told Al-Jazeera television. "It’s been at war since 1959."