Since we all are. Reporters, television, observers, peacekeepers, George Clooney, diplomats, experts in national referenda .... and of course, the people of Southern Sudan will vote tomorrow in a historic referendum if it wants to separate the north and become the country number 54 in Africa. In Juba, the capital of this region enjoyed autonomy since 2005 does not fit anyone else.Find a hotel room has become more than difficult. The area authorities have been overwhelmed and do not always act quickly and effectively. One can feel lucky if half of the information it collects your visa (age, height, passport number, etc ...) is correct. At this point, we can say that the referendum itself is a miracle.
A few months ago, the optimists pointed out that the consultation would end up delayed. It has not been well and although there are doubts that all goes well, the truth is that the target date of January 9 (the consultation will last probably until the 15th) will go down in history, whatever the response of the Sudanese south.
All the predictions say that this will be a massive boost to the secession of the north. The brothers of the northern and southern brethren take 20 years to settle their differences with violence since the whole country became independent from Britain in 1956. The colony always treated them as two very different regions but at the end of the 40 decided to join them.
The north, where the British had left more mark was eventually prevailed over the South. After a few years of independence, civil war erupted in Sudan after a break of a decade, between 1972 and 1983, was taken to continue until 2005 and leave a balance of two million dead. One of the main problems has been the religion of the northern Sudanese Muslims and southern Christians, albeit with a considerable presence of animist religions.
These differences increase when there is oil involved. The resources are in the south (75%) but the facilities to take advantage of it are in the north. Separation and that any disputes over the management of these resources have made the international community have feared a new war. A program called Sentinel Satellite Project, funded by the actor George Clooney and with the collaboration of UN and Google, will watch from space troop movements and signs of violence.
Although Clooney's initiative, it seems that this time the spirits are to continue fighting. The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, accused by the International Criminal Court to be a genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan, has said that the North follow the decision of the South.
The whole country can not withstand another war. The poverty figures, especially in the south, are brutal: More than 90% of its nine million inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day, 85% of the population is illiterate and 33% suffer from chronic hunger, according to United Nations figures.
The clashes could occur this time among some of the tribes that inhabit the border, some of which live in territories which have not yet decided which side they want to stay online. For example, the central disputed Abyei will not know which side belongs to much later. The referendum had to be held in the same date has been postponed.
That is fundamentally the problem, not the referendum itself, but what happens next. For now, the fate of Sudan is in the hands of the 3.9 million southerners called to the polls.
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