Th vultures are swirling, it's is to be expected.
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Republic of South Sudan became the world's 193rd nation yesterday, with its president saying that after 50 years of rebellion against the Muslim north it's time to fight poverty, corruption and internal strife.
"Starting from today, we'll have no excuse or a scapegoat to blame," President Salva Kiir said in a speech before tens of thousands of cheering people in South Sudan's capital, Juba, after he was sworn in for a four-year term. "Official corruption has been one of our serious challenges."
The newly independent state will have an advantage of vast oil wealth, which provides 98 percent of its $2 billion budget. South Sudan now controls of about 75 percent of Sudan's daily production of 490,000 barrels of oil, pumped mainly by China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd. and India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp.
Almost the size of the state of Texas with 100 miles of paved roads, oil-rich South Sudan has an adult illiteracy rate of 85 percent, and half of its 8 million people live on less than $1 a day, according to the United Nations.
"All the indices of human welfare put us at the bottom of humanity," Kiir said in front of an audience that included UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as many as 30 African heads of state and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
While South Sudan suffered during the war years, it must mend relations with the north, he said.
"We were bombed, maimed, enslaved, treated worse than a refugee in our own country, but we have to forgive, although we will not forget," he said.
Past Bitterness
Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir, whose government fought for more than 15 years to stem the southern rebellion, called on the two nations to "overcome the bitterness of the past" and build "positive and special neighborly relations."
U.S. President Barack Obama, in a White House statement, said he was "proud" to recognize South Sudan, calling the occasion of independence "a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible."
Overshadowing the celebrations are increasing raids by anti-government militias within South Sudan's borders and tension along its frontier with al-Bashir's country, which southern officials accuse of backing the rebels.
The UN Security Council voted 15-0 on June 8 to send 7,000 soldiers and 900 police to South Sudan to provide security for the new nation.
Violence Worsens
This year has been the most violent in South Sudan since the end of the civil war in 2005, with 2,368 civilians dying in rebel attacks and ethnic violence, including cattle raids, compared with 940 last year, according to the UN. As many as nine militia groups operate mainly along the border with the north close to oil fields.
Kiir offered an amnesty to rebels who lay down their arms.
"They claim that our concept of freedom and democracy is faulty," he said. "It is up to us to prove them wrong."
After months of negotiations, a final north-south deal on how to share oil revenue has yet to be worked out. The two sides agreed in principle that the south will pay the north for the use of pipelines and facilities at Port Sudan on the Red Sea to export its crude. Since the end of the civil war, the north and south have split earnings from production in southern oilfields.
Military tensions with the north have heightened in recent weeks. Clashes in the northern border state of Southern Kordofan between Sudan's army and troops loyal to South Sudan's army have forced more than 73,000 people to flee their homes since June 5, according to the United Nations.
Disputed Border Areas
Sudan's army seized the main town in the disputed border area of Abyei on May 21, driving more than 100,000 members of the Ngok Dinka ethnic group, who consider themselves southerners, from their homes. Negotiators from the north and the south agreed last month to withdraw their forces and allow Ethiopian peacekeepers to deploy in the area.
The Security Council voted on June 27 to deploy 4,200 Ethiopian soldiers in Abyei.
Kiir said South Sudan would work to help bring peace to the border areas.
"When you cry, we cry, when you bleed, we also bleed," he said. "I pledge to you today that we will find a just peace for all."
--Editors: Karl Maier, Willy Morris
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...
Posted By: Marta Fernandez
Sunday, July 10th 2011 at 9:22AM
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