South Sudan referendum starts
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Barnaba Benjamin, the minister of Information and Spokesman of the southern Sudanese government expressed his confidence in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday that the southern Sudanese would vote for the independence of the region in the referendum.
"The southerners will opt for separation and establish an independent state," he said.
He held the successive governments in north Sudan since Sudan's independence in 1956 responsible for failure to boost the emotion for unity among the southern Sudanese citizens.
"Since 1956, the southern Sudanese suffered from war, death, hunger, thirst and lack of development," he said.
However, the leading member of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in southern Sudan affirmed that the emerging southern Sudan state, in case of separation, would not be hostile to north Sudan and it would never seek war.
"The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was basically meant to achieve peace, so separation of south Sudan will never lead to war, " he noted.
"If a south Sudan state is established, it will not be hostile to the north. We are preparing to launch talks to ensure good neighborliness and resolve all outstanding issues through negotiation, dialogue and joint cooperation," he added.
While observers believe the voters would overwhelmingly choose secession, some northern Sudanese people still bear a ray of hope for unity.
"Why separation? We (the north and the south) are one nation. The northerners and the southerners can live together peacefully," 30-year-old Sayed Radi, a mobile shop owner in Khartoum said before the referendum. "The separation of the south will make our country weaker, as we will lose a lot of oil."
The total number of the registered south Sudanese voters amounted to about 4 million, 95 percent of them in south Sudan, about 116,800 in north Sudan and 60,000 in eight overseas countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada.
The voting centers in south Sudan amounted to more than 2,600, in addition to about 165 centers in north Sudan states, and some oversea ones.
Around 17,000 local observers together with 1,200 foreign observers are currently monitoring the south Sudan referendum to assess its compliance with the international standards.
