South Sudan: The World's Newest Country

[Shem]

I thought I'd let you guys take a break from all of the depressing shit people have been posting all week with some interesting news. Today, a new country called South Sudan was born in Africa. Do you care? Probably not. Am I still going to elaborate? You bet!

The country was initially part of the British and Egyptian condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and became part of the Republic of Sudan when independence was achieved in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. Later that year southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011 at midnight (00:00) local time following a referendum held in January 2011 in which nearly 99% of voters opted for separation from the rest of Sudan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sudan

Make what you will of that.

 

[Unfocused]

Congratulations, I guess. Good for them.

 

[YROC]

New maps for everybody.

 

[JUL3]

I thought Moe was the new Sudan?

(Hoping to hell some of the Victorian members here know where Moe is)

 

[PorkPi]

Happy Birthday!

 

[15357]

Is North Sudan OK with having a major portion of their land and population taken away?

I mean, I know that they signed the treaty and everything, but something tells me that we'll have a conventional war instead of a civil war.

 

[Robbo]

I thought Moe was the new Sudan?

(Hoping to hell some of the Victorian members here know where Moe is)

HAHAHA yeah I get it

I think the best bit about this story is that something significant happened in Africa as the result of a referendum not a war.

 

[JUL3]

HAHAHA yeah I get it

Yes!

 

[Stylo]

I for one welcome our new South Sudanese brothers to the world.

 

[Mr Stabby]

How long before China moves in.

 

[Dynasty]

Too late.

I was working for a UK company in Sudan for 7 months. Oct 2009 - May 2010. The chinese are EVERYWHERE. And I mean like roaches, just everywhere. Every 4x4 seemed to have atleast one in. There's a Swiss Army shop in Khartoum that is apparently one of the biggest in the world, simply because the Chinese buy so much from it.

I was there during their first official elections around Feb-March-April 2010. Scary stuff man. Scary stuff.

We (whites) saw stuff that barely makes it to the news. For the first time in my life, I walked outside to the 4x4 to get to work, and a (pretty rusty) tank rolled by down our dusty street followed by about 20 soldiers with AKs being held together with tape etc. They didnt give us a second glance thankfully but I still crapped myself as I was out in the complete open.

Gun fire at night. Screaming in the streets. Megaphones whailing. Public executions for demonstrations against Bashir. You name it.

Here's how ***ked up their elections were; there were 20 candidates in total, including Bashir, but those candidates couldnt post banners, have public speeches of any kind, simply because Bashir was unofficially ruling the country, and said they couldnt. It was such a piss-take, that all 19 other candidates pulled out at varying times, right up until the last day of the election process, through a combination of fear aginst Bashir and believing that the voting process would be completely rigged. Trucks carrying the voting papers on the main road between the south and Khartoum would be attacked by so-called ''rebels'' attempting to disrupt the process, all papers destroyed and drivers killed, but we all knew it would be Bashir's men. It wasnt reported that way to the world though...surprise surprise.

Bashir won with a 100% vote. Hmm...wonder how.

If you demonstrated against him, he had you murdered. Not arrested. Murdered. Publically. We've seen it.

Embassies were sending calls out via radio and mobiles to every person they could find on their registers to tell them to stay barricaded indoors for about a week (week off work basically, wohoo). The US Embassy was like a hornets nest, it was like they were getting ready to invade a country or something. Their security went through the roof, MGs posted everywhere, excessive checks for bombs under vehicles etc.

Example of how tight the security was BEFORE the elections; we had our hands on the dashboard or out the window when we were invited to a party at their (US) embassy. Sniffer dogs, the lot, with 6 guys with M4s posted around and on us the whole time we were in the car while they used mirrors underneath. As I said, scary shit.

The whole independance is long overdue and extremely welcome, but they've really just soaken the matches with petrol. The south has all the oil, and has already cut-off the north from their supply, so Bashir (the local god feared by all - aka the president) will be/is naturally pissed and will now have a border to send his troops across, which has war written all over it.

We're on the verge of one of the greatest masacres of africans/muslims (the Sudanese are widely accepted as being africans with an identity crisis - they're africans yet follow muslim traditions when it suits them, such as leaving the office 4 times a day to pray) in modern history, watch this space.

 

[Remus]

Dynasty, I've got only one thing to say. Why the **** were you there?

 

[Shem]

That must've been a frightening experience for you, Dynasty. Would you ever go back there again?

 

[Sliver]

That's a pretty great story Dynasty, can't say I would want to experience it, but damn if that isn't cool.

 

[Maestro]

Dynasty, I've got only one thing to say. Why the **** were you there?

Companies have to conduct business, bro. I personally know at least four people who spent months if not years in the middle east working for General Dynamics.

This is going to become Darfur all ****ing over again.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Wait, Africa has more than one country?

...:v ?!

 

[Ennui]

I was going to say... this still qualifies as depressing news. South Sudan is one of the worst places to live in the entire world.

 

[StarBob]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing... I don't keep up on my world news all that well these days but pretty much everything I've heard about Sudan since I first heard about Sudan has been bad stuff.

 

[Stylo]

Yeah, that's a point. This isn't a break from the depressing news, Sudan and the newly formed South Sudan are probably going to start murdering each other after South cut off the rest from all the oil.

Why, Shem? WHY???

 

[Shem]

I was going to say... this still qualifies as depressing news. South Sudan is one of the worst places to live in the entire world.

Oh, uh... yeah, you've got a point.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing... I don't keep up on my world news all that well these days but pretty much everything I've heard about Sudan since I first heard about Sudan has been bad stuff.

Yeah, that is true...

Yeah, that's a point. This isn't a break from the depressing news, Sudan and the newly formed South Sudan are probably going to start murdering each other after South cut off the rest from all the oil.

Why, Shem? WHY???

I, uh, I mean...

Oh blast it, I've failed! I tried to break the chain of depressing threads this forum has seen lately, but I couldn't do it. I mean, 99% of the Southern Sudanese people wanted independence, and my first thought was that they would be happy once they got it. I guess I didn't realize what their sovereignty will ultimately bring about.

 

[Gargantou]

It is depressing, given that North Sudan has already using force seized territory from South Sudan, namely Abyei.

After they did so, originally plans were made to hold a second specific referendum for that region but those plans were put on indefinite hold by Bashir.

On the positive side, at least the South Sudanese military forces were smart enough to try to avoid a full-scale war by quickly withdrawing all their forces from Abyei.

I do remember there being discussions of holding a UN vote on sending peacekeepers to Abyei but I don't think the vote ever came to fruition.

 

[Solaris]

If North Sudan invades the South, I think we should retaliate in response. Western Armies have played too minor a role in Africa in the last twenty years, and as a result some awful things have been done.

I don't think boots need be put on the ground (although if Special Forces guys want some action why not let them). But bombing campaigns against generals and political leaders of genocidal armies would be a good strategy. Have stealth choppers come up to enemy bases in the middle of the night and just blow half the people there up. They won't want to commit genocide any more when they're faced with the good old US airborne in the dead of night.

 

[<RJMC>]

If North Sudan invades the South, I think we should retaliate in response. Western Armies have played too minor a role in Africa in the last twenty years, and as a result some awful things have been done.

I don't think boots need be put on the ground (although if Special Forces guys want some action why not let them). But bombing campaigns against generals and political leaders of genocidal armies would be a good strategy. Have stealth choppers come up to enemy bases in the middle of the night and just blow half the people there up. They won't want to commit genocide any more when they're faced with the good old US airborne in the dead of night.

dam solaris what happened to you?

cuz guess who is a buddy of bashir? oh yes you know,but you look to have changed

 

[Solaris]

dam solaris what happened to you?

cuz guess who is a buddy of bashir? oh yes you know,but you look to have changed

Chavez see's any enemy of the US as an ally to his movement.
To me this is quite sad, however the pressure the USA has forced on Chavez forces him to seek Allys outside his comfort zone for the very survival of Venezuelan Socialism is at stake.

 

[Escaep]

If North Sudan invades the South, I think we should retaliate in response. Western Armies have played too minor a role in Africa in the last twenty years, and as a result some awful things have been done.

I don't think boots need be put on the ground (although if Special Forces guys want some action why not let them). But bombing campaigns against generals and political leaders of genocidal armies would be a good strategy. Have stealth choppers come up to enemy bases in the middle of the night and just blow half the people there up. They won't want to commit genocide any more when they're faced with the good old US airborne in the dead of night.

If the U.S. went in the entire world would scream that we're after their oil.

 

[Gargantou]

If the U.S. went in the entire world would scream that we're after their oil.

I am unsure about that. After all, al-Bashir has an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for genocide and several other charges.

 

[<RJMC>]

I am unsure about that. After all, al-Bashir has an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for genocide and several other charges.

he and his buddies will use the oil card just like they are doing whit gadaffi

 

[Mr. Djees]

I don't see how this isn't good news, the South-Sudanese people got their hard-fought independence, they now have a shot at building a better state and even if the north and south start a new war, at least the international community could properly intervene since it would no longer be an internal matter.

 

[Mr Stabby]

Not if the Chinese have any input on the matter.

 

[Gargantou]

I don't see how this isn't good news, the South-Sudanese people got their hard-fought independence, they now have a shot at building a better state and even if the north and south start a new war, at least the international community could properly intervene since it would no longer be an internal matter.

That's true, perhaps I am just being too pessimistic.

 

[Bob_Marley]

Ah, splitting up countries. That worked so very, very well in Former Yugoslavia.

If North Sudan invades the South, I think we should retaliate in response. Western Armies have played too minor a role in Africa in the last twenty years, and as a result some awful things have been done.

Because its not like French troops are deployed in Djibouti. And Chad. And Cote d'Ivoire. And Senegal. And Gabon. Or British troops in Sierra Leone. Or that most African leaders raise the spectre of Western Imperialism at the first sniff of European involvement.

Also invervention in Sudan is a logistical nightmare - its a landlocked country. Chad is likley the only country that might allow deployment for intervention in Sudan and they've got plenty of troubles of thier own.

 

[Minister]

Ah, splitting up countries. That worked so very, very well in Former Yugoslavia.

The problem was uniting them in the first place.

Also, Sudan isn't landlocked. If you meant to say South Sudan then you have my apologies. The US has put a lot of funds into the Kenyan military. Agreements were made with both Kenya and Uganda on military base access should the US ever need to deploy troops in Africa, both countries border South Sudan.

I think its creation is a good thing. Sudan should have never been one nation, even the British ruled them separately.

 

[Stylo]

As members of the UN, it is our responsibility to storm in there with guns and tanks and planes and that so that we can be all like "HEY THIS ISN'T COOL AND WHAT ISN'T COOL BY OUR STANDARDS ISN'T COOL SO EVERYBODY QUIT OR WE'LL START SHOOTING TOO" and then there'll be an explosion behind us as we raise a cigar to our mouths, put on our aviator shades and drape everything in our flag. Then we say "Play nice... pussies" and climb aboard our jeep and drive off.

We're number 1, f*ck yeah.