an. 30, Online
Southern Sudan’s referendum commission said Sunday that more than 99 percent of voters in the south opted to secede from the country’s north in a vote held earlier this month.
Your comments:
This is a great result in more ways than one. It is great that the result is so unambiguous. It is great that hopefully it brings to an end decades of tragic religion-fueled war. It is now up to the Muslim north to accept the result and let the new nation find its own destiny.
This vote outcome should also serve as a warning to the government of Indonesia in respect of Papua; neo-colonial religious and economic imperialism in Papua could further marginalize the Papuans and prompt greater call for independence.
Granting major logging, oil palm, pulp and agricultural concessions over the traditional lands of the Papuans, without their consent, is just the sort of action that can aggravate an already fragile situation.
Nairdah
Sydney