Birth Of A Nation

The votes for South Sudan's referendum on independence have nearly all been counted and the verdict is a foregone conclusion. The long-running civil strife may finally be resolved with South Sudan splitting from Sudan to form the world's newest country. The voting patterns - the target of 60% voter turnout in the south was easily achieved with over 98% of the counted votes so far being for independence - are unsurprising. The power struggle between the Arab Muslim north and the Christian and animist south, predicated on ethnic and economic conflicts, has taken a terrible toll on human lives over two civil wars from 1955 to 1972 and 1983 to 2005. The second of those has seen more than 2.5 million people killed and over five million displaced. Darfur has become a synonym for ethnic cleansing with its bloody tales of the havoc caused by the Janjaweed, Khartoum-backed Arab militia.

In the face of this, no other solution is viable. What is important now is that the referendum results are followed through. Sudan's oil reserves are likely to be a crucial issue with the majority of the oilfields in the south but processing facilities in the north. India, with its own interests in the region for reasons of energy security, could do worse than emulate the Chinese approach of engaging both the north and the south economically. For both pragmatic reasons and in terms of the bigger picture - external powers can serve as a stabilising factor and help in seeing South Sudan's independence secured peacefully - other governments too must engage both the north and the south, unlike the global lack of will in dealing with the atrocities of Darfur.


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