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SUDAN’S VOTE
BETWEEN THE 9TH and 15th of January
2011 a referendum took place in the
southern part of Sudan, which settled
if this region would still be a part
of Sudan or become an independent
state. The final result of this referendum
weren’t questionable: 98.83% of
population voted for independence.
Strong support for an own and
sovereign country among people in
southern Sudan isn’t surprising if we
look on the aspect, which divided Sudan
in two different parts already since
1956, when the dominance of the
Muslim and Arabian northern part of
Sudan over the Christian and African
south had become more visible. Continuous
conflicts and civil war became
an everyday life for people. Power
was in the hands of the northern elite,
which discriminated the south part of
the country by letting people starve,
neglecting children’s education and
lack of health care. Differences bet-
The hope for peace
Ethnical, religious, cultural and language differences as well as the oil
question divided Sudan in a north and south part long before the referendum
2011. However, this historical election did not manage to erase
old conflicts, of which oil is the biggest issue and this clash can lead to
other tensions.
ween those big groups have also had
a religious ground.
Year 1978 oil deposits were discovered
in the southern part of Sudan.
This resource became another conflict
issue in the country. The ambition
of the Northern part of the country
was to control all benefits from the
oil. In order to do this the Khartoum
regime built up, in cooperation with
others actors, a pipeline and refinery
in the northern part of the country. In
this way they appropriated both profits
and workplaces.
IT IS ALSO important to emphasize that
in conjunction with getting out oil,
Sudan attract more and more companies,
which started to throw their
weight around and it was particularly
negative for the local population. People,
which traditionally had been
living in those rich in oil areas was
thrown out from their houses.
Human rights violations in Sudan
drew charity organisations attention.
Year 1999 the UN General Assembly
presented a report that in one
of these exploited areas people were
evicted with use of massive violence
in the course of ten days. Later UN´s
report from year 2002 showed that
the situation given to human rights
has not changed. This report underlines
even that oil exploration do have
an interconnection with the conflict.
Human Rights Watch in turn points
out that oil in Sudan instead of bringing
peace, prosperity and security; it
brings out conflicts, people expulsion
and widespread abuses.
Nevertheless the possibility that
Sudan is going to be condemned as a
genocidal regime by the UN Security
Council is very small because the involved
foreign oil companies comes
from countries, which has veto in the
Security Council.