MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2010
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Blue ink, indicating registration, coversNancy Arthur’s index finger.
Across theworld, Sudanese to vote on referendum
New nation may form if south elects to separate from north
BY TARA BAHRAMPOUR
Angelos Agok strode into a low-slung building in Old Town Alexandria on Sunday, hoping to help give birth to a new country. “The dawn is already here,” the
42-year-old Silver Spring resident said as he joined southern Suda- nese people across the world in registering for a Jan. 9 vote on whether to separate from north- ern Sudan and become an inde- pendent nation. The referendum marks the fi-
nal stage of a 2005 peace agree- ment that ended 22 years of war between theKhartoum-based Su- danese government, in the main- lyMuslim north,andrebels based in the mainly Christian and ani- mist south. Southern Sudanese are widely expected to choose independence, separating them- selves from the rule of President OmarHassan al-Bashir. The Obama administration,
which came to office promising stronger leadership on Sudan, has worked to safeguard the peace accordand prevent a return
to civil war, sending a former ambassador this summer to help with negotiations on the referen- dum.
Amid charges of voter intimi-
dation and other pre-election problems, the leader of the South- ern Sudan Referendum Commis- sion, which is organizing the vote, was reported to have re- quested a three-week delay, al- though this weekend the vote appeared to be following its planned schedule. Nonetheless, those who turned
out to register on Sunday were optimistic about the vote and its outcome. Agok,whosaid hewasa soldier
with the Sudan People’s Libera- tion Army from 1986 to 2000, never expected he would live to see independence. “Self-determi- nation is what we fought for,” he said, “and that is what is happen- ing right now.” Many who have flocked to
register at the commission’s cen- ters came to the United States as refugees, fleeing decades of war. The Alexandria site, one of three that have opened in the United States so far, has drawn vanloads of people from across the eastern United States. Voters can also register in seven other countries outside Sudan, and, in response to strong interest, five additional
U.S. locations are set to open Monday. An area the size of Texas, home
to around 8 million people, southern Sudan is staggeringly poor, but its territory includes the bulk of Sudan’s oilfields. In a region where vote-rigging has been rampant and the north and south have traded accusations of improprieties, the referendum is being overseen by international monitors. Some fear disruptions during or after the voting,andthe UnitedNationsmay send in addi- tional peacekeeping troops. Estimates of how many south-
ern Sudanese live in the United States range between 25,000 and 50,000, with the largest commu- nity in Nebraska. Around 1,000 live inWashington and surround- ing areas. For the referendum to be valid,
more than 60 percent of those who register around the world must return to vote, which, for many in theUnited States, means two separate long-distance jour- neys. At the Alexandria site, in a
rented building, southern Suda- nese greeted one another with handshakes and broad smiles, while a security guard sitting in a car out front provided a stark reminder of the rocky path to- ward independence. Elizabeth Kuch, 26, a student
PHOTOS BY ASTRID RIECKEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
As GabrielMoja watches, Lena Rezgala checks Angelos Agok’s hands for ink at a registration site in Alexandria, one of the fewU.S. locations. James Bellino, 36, said he was
from Harrisburg, Pa., who was helping to staff the center, lost her parents and fled Sudan when she was 5. To her, the referendum was “like the end of a journey to me, a long suffering and a long journey where I have livedmy life without knowingmy country.” Like many of those she was checking in, Kuch said she hoped to move back to help build an independent southern Sudan. “It’s like the U.S. when it was becoming a country,” she said. “It wasn’t an easy ride. There will be a lot of work to be done.” A group from Trenton, N.J., crowded into the building after a four-hour drive, bringing along little girls with elaborately braid- ed hair and a 15-year-old boy in a crisp mauve suit who was three years shy of voting age.
wistful about separating from the north, where he had spent his teenage years. But he said he had no choice but to vote for separa- tion. “They failed to give us our basic rights, and that’s why peo- ple went to the bush, and that’s why we’re here today.” With so much at stake, coordi-
nators are vigilant about con- firming that would-be registrants are actually southern Sudanese and not from the north. Approaching the registration
table, Agok, the former soldier, held out his Maryland driver’s license. The worker asked if he had a Sudanese identification. “No, I don’t have a Sudanese
ID,” he said. “I’m someone who came to the United States through the bush.” Enter John Dau, who fled the
country’s civil war and runs a foundation that built a hospital in southern Sudan. Dau is one of several “identifiers” on site for such situations. In the absence of a registrant’s Sudanese docu- ments, identifiers ask about fami-
ly ties and connections in the local southern Sudanese commu- nity; they also look for identifying clues such as tribal scars or ask people to describe certain towns in the south. Dau,whounderstandsmany of southern Sudan’s 67 languages, sometimes asks people to say a few words in their language; he has barred several people from registering because they could not adequately prove affiliation with the south. PullingAgok aside, he said, “All
right, do you know your chief, your tribe?” Agok began listing names, un-
til Dau heard one he knew. “Oh good, you know Angok?” “Angok stays with me,” came
the reply. “He’smy cousin.” That was good enough. Agok
returned to the table, gave his thumbprint, and received a voter card for the January referendum. “I’m all set,” he said, beaming
at the prospect of long-sought independence. “I’m a citizen. I’m a southern Sudanese.”
bahrampourt@washpost.com
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