Christianity Forgives, Islam Avenges

"For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace.
"And may we, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have forcefully caused their deaths." President Salva Kiir, South Sudan

For daring to challenge the power and the might of the Arab-majority North in Sudan, a 22-year civil war reaped a harvest of millions of martyrs in a dreadful civil war. The 2005 peace agreement ending the war contained a provision for a secession vote for the South to take place in five years' time. That vote is now concluding. The result - the pre-result - a resounding vote for secession.

Khartoum is not pleased, but President al-Bashir has pledged to honour the results of the vote. Despite his vicious penchant for violence, his fearful reputation, the charges hanging over him by the International Criminal Court at the Hague of genocide in Darfur, and the prospect of the North losing its current state of prosperity gained by dredging the South of its oil-rich natural resources.

"We pray that the will of Sudan will come out. For those doing the counting, don't mix, don't cheat, don't steal", urged Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro, standing at the altar of Saint Theresa Roman Catholic cathedral in the South's capital, Juba. Rest assured, there is no need to cheat, to steal, for polling stations where counting continues have registered thousands of votes for secession to a handful of votes for continuing union.

The irreconcilable antipathy between nomadic herders and pastoralists, as venerable as Biblical times, saw Darfur erupt into the volatility of bitter combat, with hundreds of thousands of black Darfurians slaughtered, women and children repeatedly raped, millions made homeless. That conflict exists yet as the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement plays out and which secession will not settle.

The South's Minister of Internal Affairs, travelling to meet with his Northern counterpart, hoping to put an end to deadly conflict, has expressed the sincere wishes of the South: "We have spent so many years bleeding in the bush and losing our close friends and brothers both north and south will have to think twice about war. We are working for a peaceful, stable South Sudan.

Time will tell whether the desires of the South will be reflected by the Arab-Muslim North, long accustomed to brutally taking what it considered to be its due, from their Christian, black Sudanese countrymen so obviously lesser endowed as full and complete human beings.