USA/FILE: Displaced Sudanese "Lost Boys" cast their votes in a referendum for independence

Record ID: 327584

  • Title: USA/FILE: Displaced Sudanese "Lost Boys" cast their votes in a referendum for independence
  • Date: 10th January 2011
  • Summary: PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 9, 2011) (REUTERS) "LOST BOYS" SINGING
  • Embargoed: 25th January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya, Sudan, Usa
  • City:
  • Country: Usa Sudan Kenya
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8B1B4QRGAJN9NYZIB45N96FIS
  • Story Text: A group of 35 "Lost Boys" from Sudan began the last leg of their journey for freedom on Sunday (January 9) as they boarded a bus in Philadelphia headed for Alexandria, Virginia to cast their votes in a referendum which would cut Sudan in half and create an independent state in southern Sudan.
    "I have a dream that Sudan will be two different countries," Matuor Alier shouted after boarding the bus.
    For Alier and thousands of children, known as "the Lost Boys of Sudan", the idea of an independent state is a dream they didn't believe could come true.
    In the early 1980s, roughly 25,000 young boys fled victious attacks on their villages in a brutal civil war. The boys fled for Ethiopia, braving the desert and attacks by hyenas and lions, but were expelled by Ethiopia's government in 1991 and fled to Kenya. While many drowned or fell victim to crocodiles while fording rivers, the boys who survived walked hundreds of miles to safety and became known as Sudan's "Lost Boys".
    In 2001 the U.S. government designated the "Lost Boys" as a group of refugees of special humanitarian concern and accepted 3,800 for resettlement.
    The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending a civil war which has raged on and off since 1955, fuelled by oil and ethnicity, between the mostly Muslim north and the south, where most people follow Christianity and traditional beliefs.
    The war left two million dead and displaced four million people and Southerners view the poll as a new beginning after decades of strife and perceived repression by north Sudan.
    Driving down Interstate 95 the group celebrated the long-awaited referendum, singing and chanting songs about independence.
    "I am definitely going to vote for separation because I don't see a chance for unity because the unity involves Sharia law and I don't like Sharia law," said Alier.
    Alier, who is a Christian, rejoiced and was elated at the thought of casting his vote in the election.
    26-year-old Abraham Kuol, who is studying biology while working night shifts at a factory, said "It's amazing that I see this day and I'm going to embrace this for the rest of my life and even more."
    The group are traveling to a polling station established by the South Sudan Referendum Commission with the help of Villanova University.
    Dr. Tim Horner, a professor of humanities at the university, learned about the Lost Boys and offered to help them make travel arrangements to register to vote in the referendum. Horner then worked with Malual Deng Duot, a graduate student at Villanova, to arrange a bus that would take the group to the polling center so they could cast their votes in the historic referendum.
    Polling stations were set up in eight cities across the U.S. Almost 9,000 Sudanese have registered to vote.
    28-year-old Malual Deng Duot made the three-hour journey to Alexandria with his wife and two children. He has just one more class to complete before he receives his Master's degree in political science from Villanova Univeristy.
    Deng Duot said he is excited about the thought of returning to live in Sudan if there is peace after the election.
    "I have been in a refugee camp for years and I came to the U.S. I got a lot of hope. I want to pay that back to my own people."
    Martha Deng, Malual's wife, has high hopes for the referendum.
    "I want the vote to bring peace. I want the vote to bring the freedom for us. We want to feel relief," Deng said.
    Some in the group like Deng Duot expressed concerns about the mechanics of how separation could happen peacefully.
    Northern and southern Sudan have been locked in negotiations for months over how to settle potential flashpoints that include a disputed border, citizenship and the sharing out of oil revenues -- the lifeblood of both their economies.
    The Alexandria polling station is expecting more than 880 Sudanese voters to cast their ballots at the site.
    Thousands of southern Sudanese based abroad also took part in the vote, lining up to cast their ballot in Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya and Uganda in an election that offered the chance of a return home if the south votes for a split with the north.
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