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By JASON STRAZIUSO and MAGGIE FICK, Associated Press


      JUBA, Sudan (AP) - Men and women walked to election stations in
the middle of the night Sunday to create a new nation: Southern
Sudan. Some broke out into spontaneous song in the long lines. And
a veteran of Sudan's two-decade civil war, a conflict that left 2
million people dead, choked back tears.


      "We lost a lot of people," said Lt. Col. William Ngang Ayuen,
who was snapping pictures of camouflaged soldiers waiting in long
lines to vote. The 48-year-old turned away from his comrades for a
moment to maintain composure.


      Thousands of people began casting ballots Sunday during a
weeklong vote to choose the destiny of this war-ravaged and
desperately poor but oil-rich region. Because only 15 percent of
southern Sudan's 8.7 million people can read, the ballot choices
were as simple as could be: a drawing of a single hand marked
"separation" and another of clasped hands marked "unity."


      Long lines snaked through the southern capital of Juba. In rural
areas, tribesmen carrying bows and arrows walked dirt paths from
their straw huts to one-room schools to vote.


      Almost everyone - including Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir,
who has been indicted for war crimes in the western Sudan region of
Darfur - agrees that the mainly Christian south will secede from
the mainly Muslim north.


      "We are saying goodbye to Khartoum, the capital of old Sudan.
We are coming to have our own capital here in Juba," said Tom
Drani, a 48-year-old motorcycle taxi driver. He predicted 100
percent support for independence or something close to it.


      Southern Sudan is among the world's poorest regions. The entire
France-sized region has only 30 miles (50 kilometers) of paved
roads. The U.N. says a 15-year-old girl here has a higher chance of
dying in childbirth than finishing school.


      Southerners, who mainly define themselves as African, have long
resented their underdevelopment, accusing the northern
Arab-dominated government of taking their oil revenues without
investing in the south.


      This week's referendum is part of the peace deal that ended the
1983-2005 civil war between the north and south. Northerners had no
say in the voting process and the western region of Darfur, which
belongs to the north, is not affected by the vote.


      Independence won't be finalized until July, and many issues are
yet to be worked out, including north-south oil rights, water
rights to the White Nile, border demarcation and the status of the
contested region of Abyei, a north-south border region where the
biggest threat of a return to conflict exists. Most of Sudan's oil
is in the south, while the pipelines to the sea run through the
north, tying the two regions together economically.


      Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir, wearing his trademark black
cowboy hat, was visibly emotional as he remembered those killed in
the north-south war. Kiir voted at the mausoleum of rebel hero John
Garang.


      "I am sure that they didn't die in vain," he told the crowd.
Women chanted and one man waved a sign saying: "A road toward
sovereignty. A new nation to be born on the African continent!!!"


      Many voters lined up in the middle of the night, and some slept
at the site of Garang's grave. Among the voters was Julia Kiden.


      "We feel that after the referendum we will be delivered from
oppression from the north," the 37-year-old said.


      Foreign officials including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter,
Sen. John Kerry and actor and Sudan activist George Clooney were in
Juba for the start of the vote. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan told a news conference that most people in Sudan are tired of
war.


      "There is enough in history to tell us that enmity between
peoples need not last forever, and bitter enemies have made peace,
and today many parts of the world live peacefully together and it
can and should happen here also in Sudan," he said.


      Sudan, geographically the largest country on the continent, will
lose a third of its land, nearly a quarter of its population and
much of its oil if the south secedes. Khartoum's only consolation
will be that the pipelines to get the product to market all run
through its territory.


      The U.S. offered Khartoum a range of incentives for a peaceful
southern vote, including removal from its list of state sponsors of
terrorism. In recent weeks Al-Bashir has sought to play down fears
of potential violence, saying the north will accept a vote for
secession.

      There were reports of violence in Abyei, a region that had also
been scheduled to hold a self-determination referendum but whose
fate will now be settled by north-south negotiations.


      Bashtal Mohammed Salem, a leader of the Arab Misseriya tribe,
said six Misseriya herders were killed Sunday and one killed
Saturday in attacks by southern security forces. Attempts to
mediate the dispute and end the violence were ongoing.

      Carter, who greeted voters in Juba on Sunday while wearing a
bright blue Carter Center T-shirt, told The Associated Press in an
interview that Abyei is a "flashpoint" and a test case for the
north and south. But he said Al-Bashir has little choice but to
stand by his pledge of no return to violence.


      "Bashir has made that statement not only to me and to the
people of the south but to the world, and that includes the
military and political elements of the United Nations and the
promises he made to his fellow leaders in the African Union,"
Carter said. "I think that there would be severe self-condemnation
of himself if he doesn't go forward with the peaceful acceptance,
and also he doesn't have any alternative, except to go to war."


      Clooney, who has been working to raise awareness about a
potential return to war and who visited Abyei on Friday, told the
AP on Sunday that a deal isn't reached on the future of Abyei -
whether it goes with the north or south - then the secession
process could implode. "If you underestimate that, that will bring
us back to war," he said.


      Many of the 1 million southerners who fled the region because of
the violence - which began shortly after Sudan was given
independence from joint British-Egyptian control in 1956 - voted
elsewhere. Polling sites were set up in eight American cities,
where voters included some of the 3,800 war orphans known as the
Lost Boys of Sudan.


      About 117,000 southerners who live in the north also registered
to vote, but the scenes at polling stations in Sudan's capital of
Khartoum were far removed from the joyous scenes in the south.


      Many southerners fear retribution from northerners if they vote.
A large billboard in downtown Khartoum featured a picture of
al-Bashir in feathered southern headgear with the words: "No to
separation, together, together."


      "I voted today, and frankly, I voted for unity," said Aldod
Akon Deng, 65, who is originally from the south. "I am here since
1964. My kids are all born in Khartoum. That's why I voted for
unity. I've been raised here. My family grew up here. Even if
there's separation, I'll stay here."


      About 3.9 million people registered to vote. A simple majority
must vote for separation for the referendum to pass, but 60 percent
of registered voters must cast ballots for the vote to be valid.
Results will trickle in after polls close Saturday, but results
won't be finalized until February.


      Associated Press reporters Khaled Kazziha in Juba and Sarah El
Deeb and Mohamed Osman in Khartoum, Sudan, contributed to this
report.
      

Gallery

Sudan prepares for historic vote on dividing country

Social Issues

Thousands of people began casting ballots Sunday during a
weeklong vote to choose the destiny of Sudan, a war-ravaged and
desperately poor but oil-rich region.

For jubilant voters in S.Sudan, new country nears

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