[ti:South Sudan Decides its Future in Vote on Independence]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:IN THE NEWS]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is IN THE NEWS
[00:05.21]in VOA Special English.
[00:08.15]On Sunday,
[00:10.09]the people of southern Sudan
[00:11.93]begin deciding whether or not
[00:14.77]to become the world's newest nation.
[00:17.81]A week of voting is expected
[00:20.74]to split Africa's largest country in two.
[00:24.88](SOUND)
[00:27.82]Friday was the final day of campaigning.
[00:30.65]Southern Sudanese paraded through Juba,
[00:34.69]their possible future capital.
[00:37.52]The vote comes from a peace agreement
[00:40.81]six years ago.
[00:42.70]Almost four million people
[00:45.44]have registered to vote.
[00:47.23]David Gressly,
[00:49.57]the top United Nations official
[00:51.90]in the south, says
[00:53.56]voting centers are ready.
[00:56.05]DAVID GRESSLY: "[The] security situation is calm.
[00:57.59]It's been calm for a number of weeks.
[00:59.18]So we think this is going
[01:00.33]to start on time.
[01:01.27]It will go very peacefully."
[01:02.57]Observers from around the world
[01:05.11]have gathered in Sudan for the voting.
[01:08.05]Final results are not expected
[01:11.54]for several weeks.
[01:13.23]Many southerners have been
[01:16.02]returning from the north.
[01:17.56]They fear the unknown.
[01:20.00]Yet so do many northern Sudanese.
[01:24.08]They have urged southerners
[01:27.47]to vote for unity.
[01:29.16]But many southerners feel
[01:31.95]their part of the country
[01:33.69]has been treated unfairly
[01:35.88]by the central government in Khartoum.
[01:39.36]The peace agreement was signed
[01:42.20]in January of two thousand five.
[01:45.08]It ended more than
[01:47.47]twenty years of civil war
[01:49.86]between the north and the south.
[01:52.50]The conflict cost an estimated
[01:55.93]two million lives.
[01:57.48]It also prevented most economic
[02:01.21]development in the south
[02:03.10]-- one of the poorest areas
[02:05.14]in the world.
[02:06.63]Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
[02:10.52]visited Juba on Tuesday.
[02:12.81]He says his government will respect
[02:16.99]the results of the vote.
[02:18.89]The southern leader, Salva Kiir,
[02:22.47]has promised the same.
[02:24.21]Historically, southern Sudan
[02:27.30]has had greater cultural
[02:29.53]and economic ties to East Africa
[02:32.97]than to the Arab-led government
[02:36.31]in Khartoum.
[02:37.91]The north is majority Muslim.
[02:41.14]The south is mainly Christians
[02:44.08]and animists who follow
[02:46.66]traditional African religions.
[02:49.40]44 million people live in Sudan.
[02:53.93]Estimates of how many of them
[02:57.36]live in the south are between about
[03:00.26]7.5 million and nearly 10 million.
[03:05.19]Most of the oil in Sudan
[03:08.37]is in the south.
[03:10.11]But the oil is processed and exported
[03:14.54]-- at least for now
[03:16.19]-- from Port Sudan in the north.
[03:19.37]Rosie Sharpe from the environmental
[03:22.61]rights group Global Witness say
[03:25.79]that means the north and south
[03:28.93]will have to cooperate.
[03:31.52]The two sides will have to settle
[03:34.26]other issues of borders,
[03:36.40]citizenship rights and water.
[03:40.18]But the biggest issue is oil.
[03:43.82]The peace agreement
[03:46.00]divided oil earnings.
[03:48.00]The south gets almost all
[03:51.38]of its money from oil.
[03:53.57]But that wealth-sharing deal ends
[03:57.05]when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
[04:00.24]expires this July.
[04:02.78]Ms. Sharpe says any future deal
[04:06.61]needs to be more in the open.
[04:09.30]She says no one is even sure exactly
[04:13.67]how much oil Sudan produces.
[04:17.17]China has the largest oil pumping
[04:21.10]operation there.
[04:22.69]Justin Willis, an East Africa researcher
[04:27.07]at Britain's Durham University, says
[04:30.11]Sudan's oil industry is deep in mystery.
[04:35.39]JUSTIN WILLIS: "There are complicated
[04:36.24]special deals involving the output
[04:38.18]from each of the fields.
[04:39.47]Unsurprisingly there has been
[04:41.12]a lot of suspicion in Juba
[04:42.36]that they are not getting
[04:43.56]what they are supposed to get,
[04:44.66]and this really is a very
[04:46.05]major issue for the future."
[04:47.89]And that's IN THE NEWS
[04:49.64]in VOA Special English.
[04:52.62]I'm Steve Ember.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA¾©Ïã2018ÏÂÔØ
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