Southern Sudan leader Salva Kiir has made his strongest call for full independence when the region’s status is decided at a referendum due in 2011.<\/p>\n
He said voting for unity with northern Sudan would make southerners “second class citizens” in their own land.<\/p>\n
A referendum in the now semi-autonomous oil-rich south was part of the 2005 deal that ended decades of civil war.<\/p>\n
A BBC correspondent in Sudan says Mr Kiir’s comments are likely to add to tensions between the north and south.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Previously officials have been careful in public to at least promote the unity between north and south, as the peace deal stipulates, says the <\/p>\n
BBC’s Peter Martell in the South Sudan capital Juba.<\/p>\n
‘Respecting choice’<\/strong><\/p>\n Salva Kiir was speaking at a special church service to pray for peace, timed to mark the start of voter registration for multi-party elections due in April 2010 and the January 2011 referendum.<\/p>\n “When you reach your ballot boxes the choice is yours. You want to vote for unity, so that you become a second-class (citizen) in your own country, that is your choice,” he told the congregation at St Teresa’s Catholic Cathedral in Juba.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “You would want to vote for independence, so that you are a free person, in your independent state, that will be your own choice. And we will respect the choice of the people.”<\/p>\n In October, South Sudan said it had achieved a breakthrough in talks with the north over terms for the referendum.<\/p>\n Vice-President Riek Machar said the vote would require a simple majority as long as two-thirds of those eligible took part.<\/p>\n In the past, the Khartoum government had insisted that 75% of voters must agree to independence.<\/p>\n Mr Machar said all southerners would be allowed to vote, including those in Khartoum and those outside Sudan.<\/p>\n BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n
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