Bashir accepts south Sudan’s secession vote

KHARTOUM, (Reuters) – Sudan’s president today said  he accepted a southern vote for independence in a referendum  that is set to create Africa’s newest state and open up a fresh  period of uncertainty in the increasingly volatile region.
Final results from the plebiscite are due later today  but preliminary figures show 98.83 percent of voters from  Sudan’s oil-producing south chose to secede from the north.  Sudan is now expected to split in two on July 9.
“Today we received these results and we accept and welcome  these results because they represent the will of the southern  people,” Bashir said in an address on state TV.
Bashir earlier told supporters he knew the vote was for  secession.
The referendum is the climax of a 2005 north-south peace  deal that set out to end Africa’s longest civil war, reunite the  divided country and instil democracy in a land that straddles  the continent’s Arab-sub Saharan divide.
Bashir’s comments allayed fears that the split could  reignite conflict over the control of the south’s oil reserves.
Both sides did avoid major outbreaks of violence over the  past five years. But they failed to overcome decades of deep  mutual distrust to persuade southerners to embrace unity.
Hundreds of people started gathering in the blistering heat  of the southern capital Juba today to celebrate the official  results.
“Today I don’t fear war anymore, it is the past … Our  leaders have made friends with the north, but for me, I can  never forgive them for what I have seen. I don’t hate them now,  but I never want to see them again,” said Riak Maker, 29, as men  drummed and women ululated around him.