Parting ways Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir casts his vote in front of a cheering crowd of hundreds of Sudanese voters in Juba, Sunday. (AP) n Bashir promises to accept vote result n Clashes in Abeyi JUBA: Millions of south Sudanese started voting Sunday in an independence referendum expected to see their war-ravaged region emerge as a new nation. People queued for hours in the burning sun outside polling stations in the southern capital Juba, where banners described the week-long ballot as a “Last March to Freedom” after decades of civil war and perceived repression by north Sudan. “This is the moment the people of southern Sudan have been waiting for,” Southern President Salva Kiir said after casting his ballot, urging people to be patient as they waited to vote. “I am voting for separation,” said Nhial Wier, a veteran of the north-south civil war that led up to the vote. “This day marks the end of my struggles. In the army, I was fighting for freedom. I was fighting for separation.” The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest civil war, fueled by oil and ethnicity, between the mostly Muslim north and the south, where most people follow Christianity and traditional beliefs. In the north, the prospect of losing a quarter of the country's land mass – and the source of most of its oil – has been greeted with resignation and some resentment. Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir, who campaigned for unity in the run-up to the vote, has been making increasingly conciliatory comments and this month promised to join independence celebrations, if that was the outcome. US President Barack Obama said Saturday a peaceful, orderly referendum could help put Sudan back on a path toward normal relations with the United States after years of sanctions. In Juba, actor George Clooney and US Senator John Kerry mingled with dancing and singing crowds. In the north, many people appeared to be resigned to the loss of south Sudan. “We feel an incredible sadness that a ... very loved part of Sudan will separate from us,” said northern opposition Umma Party official Sara Nuqdullah. The vote's organizing commission told Reuters it had defied gloomy forecasts of delays to deliver all voting materials on time for Sunday's deadline. The logistical achievements have not been matched by political progress. Southerners went to the polls without knowing the exact position of their border with the north or how much of Sudan's debt they would have to shoulder after a split. Meanwhile, clashes between renegade militiamen and south Sudanese troops disrupted voting in part of a key oil state Sunday, the organizing commission number two said. “There has been some fighting because of certain militiamen but I am assured that the situation has been contained,” Chan Reec told a news conference. “I am optimistic that this will not impact the voting process,” he added.
