In South Sudan, cry of ‘freedom’ rings

JUBA, South Sudan - The celebrations erupted at midnight. Thousands of revelers poured into Juba’s steamy streets in the predawn hours yesterday, hoisting enormous flags, singing, dancing, and leaping on the back of cars.

“Freedom!’’ they screamed.
A new nation was being born in what used to be a forlorn, war-racked patch of Africa, and to many it seemed nothing short of miraculous. After more than five decades of an underdog, guerrilla struggle and two million lives lost, the Republic of South Sudan, Africa’s 54th state, was about to declare its independence in front of a who’s who of Africa, including the president of the country letting it go: Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, a war-crimes suspect.
Many of those who turned out to celebrate, overcome with emotion, spoke of their fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters killed in the long struggle to break free from the Arab-dominated north.
“My whole body feels happy,’’ said George Garang, an English teacher who lost his father, grandfather and 11 brothers in the war. By sunrise, the crowds were surging through the streets of Juba, the capital, to the government quarter, where the declaration of independence would be read aloud. Thousands of soldiers with assault rifles lined the freshly painted curbs.
This new nation is being built on a guerrilla army - the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, whose field commanders are now South Sudan’s political leaders - and the amount of firepower here is unnerving.
By 9 a.m., the sun was dangerous. The faces, necks, and arms of the people packed thousands deep around a parade stand built for the occasion were glazed with sweat. A woman abruptly slumped to the dirt and was whisked away. “She fainted because she’s happy,’’ said a man in the crowd
In a column of black polished steel, one brand-new Mercedes after another, came the African leaders: Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president; Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s; Meles Zenawi, prime minister of Ethiopia; Teodoro Obiang, Equatorial Guinea’s president and chairman of the African Union; Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s president; and Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, among others.
But, almost inexplicably, Bashir, who for years prosecuted a vicious war to keep the south from splitting off and to prevent this very day from happening, drew the loudest burst of applause when his motorcade rolled in. “It is not happiness,’’ explained Daniel Atem, dressed in a suit and tie for the occasion, a miniflag flying from his lapel. “If you are talking to your enemy, you cannot say, ‘You are bad.’ ’’ But, he added, “you know what is in your heart.’’
From the mid-1950s, even before Sudan shook off its colonial yoke in 1956, the southern Sudanese were chafing for more rights. Sudan had an unusually clear fault line, reinforced by British colonizers, with the southern third mostly animist and Christian and the northern part majority Muslim and long dominated by Arabs.
The southern struggle blew up into a full-fledged rebellion in the 1960s and then again in the 1980s, and the Sudanese government responded brutally, bombing villages and unleashing Arab militias that massacred civilians and enslaved children.
Many of the same tactics associated with the crisis in Darfur, in Sudan’s west, in the mid-2000s, were tried and tested long before that here in southern Sudan. (The International Criminal Court has indicted Bashir on genocide charges for the Darfur massacres.)
The central government also sowed divisions among the southerners, turning ethnic groups against one another. Some of the worst violence, like the Bor massacre in 1991 when toddlers were impaled on fence posts, was internecine.
Christian groups had been championing the southern Sudanese since the 19th century. And their efforts paid off in 2000 when George W. Bush was elected president of the United States.
He elevated Sudan to the top of his foreign policy agenda, and in 2005, the American government pushed the southern rebels and the central government to sign a comprehensive peace agreement that guaranteed the southerners the right to secede.
The American-backed treaty set the stage for a referendum this January in which southerners voted by 98.8 percent for independence. At 1:20 p.m. yesterday, the southerners officially proclaimed their freedom.

New UN force in South Sudan will have 7,000 military and 900 police

UNITED NATIONS — A new U.N. peacekeeping mission for South Sudan will have up to 7,000 military personnel and 900 international police with a mandate to keep peace and help promote development in the world’s newest nation, according to the draft U.N. resolution obtained late Thursday by The Associated Press.

The U.N. Security Council held intensive discussions this week to reach agreement on a resolution that would authorize the new mission and ensure its adoption before South Sudan officially becomes independent from Sudan’s Khartoum-ruled north on Saturday.
The council scheduled a meeting Friday morning, when diplomats said the draft resolution is almost certain to be approved unanimously.
Russian concerns about authorizing a mission before South Sudan becomes independent were overcome by including the phrase: “Welcoming the establishment of the Republic of South Sudan on July 9, 2011 upon its proclamation as an independent state,” the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.
The draft resolution would establish a new United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan on July 9 for an initial period of one year, with up to 7,000 military personnel and 900 civilian police as well as civilian staff including human rights experts. It calls for reviews after three months and six months to determine if conditions on the ground would allow the military contingent to be reduced from 7,000 to 6,000 troops.
It also gives the U.N. mission, to be known as UNMISS, a mandate “to consolidate peace and security, and to help establish the conditions for development ... with a view to strengthening the capacity of the government of the Republic of South Sudan to govern effectively and democratically and establish good relations with its neighbors.”
The draft resolution specifically authorizes the mission to support the new government on its political transition, issues of governance and establishing state authority throughout the country, and to advise it on “an inclusive constitutional process,” holding elections, and establishing an independent media.
It authorizes U.N. peacekeepers to support the government in preventing conflict and demobilizing combatants, to conduct patrols in areas at high risk of conflict, and to protect civilians “under imminent threat of physical violence.” It also authorizes the mission to cooperate with U.N. agencies in supporting the government in peacebuilding activities, including promoting development, the rule of law, security and justice.
Independence for South Sudan is the culmination of a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war between Sudan’s Arab-dominated north and mainly ethnic African south, one of the longest and deadliest conflicts in Africa.
But there are fears that war could be re-ignited in the poverty-stricken nation because troops from the north and south are facing off in the contested oil-rich border region of Abyei and northern troops and forces loyal to the south are fighting in Southern Kordofan, a state just over the border in the north.
The U.N. has had a 10,400-strong peacekeeping force, known as UNMIS, monitoring implementation of the 2005 north-south agreement, which operates on both sides of the border. Its mandate expires Saturday and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed a three-month extension but the Khartoum government rejected any extension and said it wanted all U.N. troops out of the north.
Diplomats said the five permanent Security Council nations — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — jointly asked the Sudanese government earlier this week to allow a U.N. presence in the north after South Sudan breaks away.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, who will be leading the American delegation to South Sudan’s independence ceremonies, said Thursday in Washington that many council members are trying to persuade Sudan’s leaders “that it is not in their interest that the U.N. be compelled to leave abruptly or prematurely” while key issues from the 2005 agreement remain unresolved and “a volatile and grave humanitarian situation” exists in Southern Kordofan and possibly neighboring Blue Nile state.
“We will continue to do what we can to underscore to Khartoum that it is in their interests and the interests of the region that they not take this step,” Rice said. “But they seem thus far to be quite determined, and this poses a great deal of worry for the security of people in Southern Kordofan, for the common border, for humanitarian access and a number of other important issues.”
Haile Menkerios, the top U.N. envoy in Sudan, said Thursday in Juba that the “liquidation” of UNMIS will start on July 10. Diplomats said between 2,500-3,000 U.N. peacekeepers are currently based in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile where fighting continues.
“U.N. engagement in Sudan will, however, continue,” Menkerios said. “The United Nations will continue its support to the government of Sudan, the government of South Sudan and to the people of Sudan as a whole through its agencies, funds and programs, a new mission in South Sudan and a new mission in Abyei.”
Leaders from the north and south signed an agreement on June 20 to demilitarize Abyei and allow and Ethiopian peacekeeping force to move and a week later the Security Council authorized the deployment of 4,200 Ethiopian troops in Abyei for six months.
One unresolved issue is future responsibility for monitoring the north-south border.
The governments of both Sudans signed an agreement on border security on June 29 and the draft resolution calls on the parties to propose arrangements for border monitoring by July 20. If they fail to do so, the resolution requests the new U.N. mission in South Sudan “to observe and report on any flow of personnel, arms and related materiel across the border with Sudan.”

In challenging East, Luol Deng quietly providing Bulls a boost

Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose is playing like an MVP. Forward Carlos Boozer and center Joakim Noah finally are healthy and on the court together.

They all make the Bulls serious contenders in the Eastern Conference.

As important as those three are, Bulls coaches and players said the team would not have withstood the injuries to Boozer and Noah without the reliably consistent play of versatile forward Luol Deng.

Perhaps overlooked at times, Deng is not undervalued by his team.

In Chicago's 87-86 victory against the Miami Heat on Sunday, Deng played a game-high 42 minutes, 36 seconds and had 18 points, three assists, two rebounds, two blocks and a steal. His three free throws in the final 17.3 seconds won the game.

Deng is strong offensively and defensively. He can start or run with the second unit. The Bulls run plays for him and through him. They can have him defend a shooting guard or a power forward.

"When you look at the teams that have had success over the years, there's always a guy like that," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "I don't like to take him off the floor, because whatever you need he provides."

Thibodeau is serious. Deng was fifth in the NBA in minutes a game (39.2) and one of six players averaging at least 17 points, six rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.9 steals.

Deng has had such statistics for a large part of his career. But because of Chicago's limited success in the past two seasons and because of Rose's outstanding play this season, Deng doesn't always get the credit.

Deng, 25, is unfazed by the lack of recognition. "As long as my teammates and coaches are satisfied with what I'm doing, it makes me happy with what I'm doing," Deng said.

Deng, a seven-year NBA veteran who played one season at Duke, recognizes Thibodeau's arrival as Bulls coach this season has helped his game. Thibodeau implemented a style that fit Deng: tough defense and an offense with ball movement.

"Coach's system has been great for me because I know what we're doing," Deng said. "My whole career, I've liked structure. My high school was very organized. When I played with Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) at Duke, it was very organized. I like a system."

Thibodeau's system allows the Bulls to capitalize on Deng's versatility. On offense, Deng is used in the pick-and-roll, off screens, on post-ups and one-on-one.

"If you're not paying attention to him, he can do a lot of damage," Thibodeau said. "He does everything."

Deng is doing it even as he remains involved in his native Sudan. A refugee who left with his family when he was 5, he lived in Egypt and England before moving to the USA when he was 14.

Sudan has been marred by a violent civil war. But in a referendum in early January, Sudanese in the south voted to secede from the north and become a separate country.

Deng hired buses to bring Sudanese refugees living in Michigan to a voting center in Illinois.

"Anywhere you have kids, there's a future," said Deng, who visited Sudan during the summer for the first time since leaving in the early 1990s. "The referendum, I think it's great."