Long queues on third day of south Sudan vote

Sudan referendum clouded by death of 33 people killed in clashes between rival groups in Abyei.

Middle East Online

Southerners have until Saturday to vote JUBA, Sudan - Southern Sudanese flocked to the polls once again on Tuesday, the third day of voting in the referendum on independence for the south, bringing the region a step closer to nationhood. Long queues formed outside the main polling stations in Juba, the southern capital, by the time they opened at 8:00 am (0500 GMT). The scale of the turnout on the first of the seven days of voting has already put the south well on the way to reaching the 60-percent threshold it needs for the referendum to be valid, with large numbers also queuing on Monday to cast their ballot. The South Sudan Referendum Commission said on Monday that nearly 20 percent of the 3.93 million registered to vote in the landmark poll -- the vast majority of them in the south -- had done so on Sunday, the first day of polling. Southerners have until Saturday to vote on whether to remain united with north Sudan or secede, as agreed under a 2005 peace deal. The south is widely expected to choose independence, after decades of conflict with the north that left some two million people dead. The massive referendum turnout and scenes of euphoria in the south have been overshadowed by a flare-up of violence in the disputed Abyei district on the north-south border, where rival tribes reported clashes that left at least 33 dead since Friday. The feuding Misseriya and Ngok Dinka peoples of the disputed Sudan district of Abyei on Monday both reported heavy losses in clashes over the past three days totalling at least 33 dead. "Thirteen Misseriya have been killed and 38 wounded since Friday," Misseriya tribal leader Hamid al-Ansari said. Abyei's chief administrator Deng Arop Kuol said: "The total for these three days, we lost about 20 to 22 Dinka. "They attacked us three times already and we are expecting them to attack again today." UN peacekeepers have been sent to Abyei to investigate, UN Mission in Sudan spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said as Western governments expressed mounting concern about the potential for bloodshed there to derail implementation of the 2005 peace deal between north and south that ended 22 years of devastating war. Tensions in the district on the north-south border have been rising with the launch on Sunday of a landmark independence referendum in the south. Abyei had been due to hold a simultaneous plebiscite on its own future, but it has been indefinitely postponed amid deadlock between northern and southern leaders over who should be eligible to take part in the vote on remaining part of the north or joining an autonomous or independent south. The Misseriya, heavily armed nomads who migrate to Abyei each dry season to find water and pasture for their livestock, insist they should have the same right to vote as the Dinka, settled agriculturalists who live in the district all year and are sympathetic to the south. Threats by the Dinka to take unilateral action over the plebiscite delay have sparked warnings of retaliation from the Misseriya. Northern and southern troops are barred from entering Abyei. The district is patrolled by special joint units of the two armies and by UN peacekeepers. But sources in Abyei said the southern army had been slipping soldiers into Abyei dressed as police, which had sparked the spate of clashes at watering holes used by the Misseriya. Southern military spokesman Philip Aguer said he could not talk about Abyei as it was outside his area of responsibility.