Media Reports on South Sudan’s First Independence Day Anniversary
10 min read
South Sudan loses the [story] plot even before scripting it
On May 3, President Salva Kiir, in an effort to recover the stolen funds, wrote to 75 government officials, asking them to return the loot. And by responding favorably to the call, Kiir clarified, the officials in question would be accorded amnesty and their names will remain confidential. Cases of corruption in South Sudan have been on the rise since 2005, when the region gained special autonomy from Khartoum, under a peace deal. The peace agreement ended two decades of war with the Sudanese government (starting in 1983) and provided for formal independence of South Sudan in July last year following a landslide vote. One year on, there are no indications that prevalent graft will be reversed anytime soon.
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/1449320/-/mgi8l6z/-/index.html
South Sudan One Year On: From the World’s Newest State to Another African Story
The African story, which is also, a postcolonial one, is the narrative of centralised and erratic decision making mechanisms; the negation of social and political pluralism, where the harassment, intimidation and vilification of the opposition parties, civil society and journalists are daily rituals; the clinging on to power, whether deserved or not, at all costs; the concentration of state power, where parties are allowed, within either the upper echelons of the ruling party or exclusively in the hands of a single individual, usually the leader; the blurring of the distinction between the party and the state, and the subordination of the state to the party of the leader; gross violations of human rights; the use of the national army as a private militia to prop up the regime, and as an instrument of repression; the creation of structures which allow individuals, especially the leadership and its cohorts to punitively abuse and misuse their office to reap personal gains without being accountable to anyone.
http://www.sudantribune.com/IMG/pdf/another_country.pdf
The Failed State Lobby
Inside the bizarre moral campaign by Washington politicians, NGO do-gooders, and celebrities to create an independent South Sudan — whether it’s a disaster or not. Juba, South Sudan, is one of the few places in the world where American bipartisanship seems to be alive and well. One year ago today, President Barack Obama’s envoy to the United Nations, Susan Rice, sat near former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell as Rev. Franklin Graham, a harsh evangelical critic of the U.S. president, cheered what White House officials were claiming as a major foreign-policy success — the birth of an independent South Sudanese nation. Diplomats and African heads of state took turns congratulating the new government from a podium overlooking tens of thousands of sweating South Sudanese gathered under the midday sun for the occasion.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/09/the_failed_state_lobby
South Sudan: Is There a Need for a New Vision?
Special remarks as prepared by Ambassador Princeton Lyman for the July 9, 2012 discussion “South Sudan: Beyond the First Year” at the United States Institute of Peace. Lyman is U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan.
http://www.usip.org/South-Sudan-Is-There-a-Need-for-a-New-Vision
One Year Later, State Building in South Sudan
With its secession from Sudan on July 9, 2011, South Sudan not only gained its eagerly-awaited independence, but also embarked onto the long road of state building. Over the past several months, the new country has begun to confront the myriad challenges it faces in sustainable development, good governance, and capacity building. In addition, the world’s newest state is also coping with cross-cutting issues of managing resources, constructing a sense of nationhood, and contending with problems particular to youth and women. These reports begin to address some of the central challenges to statebuilding in South Sudan.
http://paanluelwel2011.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/one-year-later-the-republic-of-south-sudan/
The dream of South Sudan is fading fast – I cannot yet return
The international community must share the blame for corruption and fighting in the year-old nation. What a difference a year makes in the fortunes of a nation. As South Sudan marks the first anniversary of its independence from Sudan, many who celebrated so euphorically in the streets now admit that their dream is fading fast. The country so many yearned for is teetering on the brink of crisis and only concerted international action can steer it away from the cliff edge.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/10/south-sudan-africa?
Special Report: In South Sudan, a state of dependency
(Reuters) – The world’s newest nation relies on oil to finance 98 percent of its budget. So when the government decided to shut off crude production in January after a dispute with a neighbor, South Sudan’s foreign donors and aid groups were shocked. How will the country survive, they wondered? By leaning even more heavily on donors and aid groups, an examination of the country’s safety net shows. As in many developing nations, international aid is both an invaluable help to South Sudan and a crutch that sometimes enables it to avoid reality. Development experts have grown more sophisticated in recent decades about how they deliver aid. But in fragile states such as South Sudan, getting the balance right between helping a country and helping that country help itself remains incredibly difficult.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/10/us-south-sudan-aid-idUSBRE86909V20120710
Special Report: For the world’s newest nation, a rocky start
The birth of South Sudan a year ago today was cheered with optimism and hope. One year on, a string of crises is testing citizens of the newest nation on the planet. In the first of a series of special reports that will chronicle the first year in the life of South Sudan – and assess the odds of whether it will flourish or fail – Reuters reports from Pibor, where deadly cattle raids have left hundreds dead and forced people to ask what they want from their government. Cattle raids are centuries old in the region. The expectation that a central government can and should halt them is much newer.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/09/us-south-sudan-governed-idUSBRE86806Q20120709
South Sudan anniversary: Salva Kiir focuses on economy
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has said the world’s newest country needs to be “independent economically” in his speech to mark the first anniversary of its independence. Thousands of people danced and waved flags during official celebrations in the capital, Juba. The BBC’s Nyambura Wambugu, in Juba, says that few South Sudanese have seen much improvement in their lives. But she says that most feel it has been a good year, despite the problems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18769200
South Sudan turns 1, but oil, border issues remain
JUBA, South Sudan – Tens of thousands of South Sudanese gathered under a sweltering sun on Monday in the capital, Juba, to celebrate the first birthday of the world’s youngest nation — an event marred by dire economic hardships and a near-constant threat of war. Dance troops gave traditional performances and South Sudan’s armed forces put on a parade that featured the country’s fiercest pieces of weaponry: two attack helicopters. The sun was so intense that several soldiers were carried off in stretchers. President Salva Kiir addressed the country’s number one threat: a return to war with Sudan, the country the south battled for more than two decades.
South Sudan: in numbers
As South Sudan celebrates its first anniversary we look at the key statistics to assess the state of the world’s newest nation. South Sudan became an independent country on 9 July last year after a referendum ended decades of civil war that had killed an estimated 2 million people. One of the first post-independence tasks of South Sudan’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was to produce a GDP estimate. It came in at $1,546 per capita, which compares well with the country’s east African neighbours – for example, $769 in Kenya and $189 in Burundi.
South Sudan Struggles 1 Year After Independence
One year ago, South Sudan declared its independence from Sudan. Since then, there have been tribal clashes in several areas of the new nation, and in April, there was a brief border war with Sudan.
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/09/156476639/south-sudan-struggles-1-year-after-independence
The Sudans after the split: Divided we fall?
As South Sudan marks one year of independence, we discuss if the separation has brought progress or regression. South Sudan is celebrating its first year of independence from Sudan, but the euphoria of last year has given way to a harsh reality: Border wars with the north, internal violence and a shutdown of oil production are serious economic and security challenges. Without the income from oil production, South Sudan has no money to improve the lives of its people – instead it is cutting services and investment in the name of austerity. According to the UN half of the people in South Sudan do not have enough to eat.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/07/201271072536205955.html
One year later, the Sudans are still reeling from their messy divorce
It’s been a year since South Sudan raised its new flag in Juba, becoming the world’s newest country and leaving the rest of Sudan to fend for itself. The separation has not been easy. SIMON ALLISON assesses the state of the troubled nations. You might think the political situation in the Sudans has little to do with the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and you’d be right. But there are a couple of similarities that even a serious and upstanding journalist like myself can’t ignore. First, that slightly crazy religious fundamentalists make for prickly partners, in both government and matrimony, and that break-ups are invariably messy and expensive.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NG11Dj01.html
South Sudan: millions wait for proof they are citizens of new nation
Rising risk of statelessness as vital certificate of nationality remains out of reach for millions of South Sudanese. One year after South Sudan gained independence, many southerners are still waiting for the slips of paper that will prove they are citizens of the world’s newest nation and grant them access to employment, a bank account, justice before the courts and other crucial privileges. More than eight million people in South Sudan await proof of their nationality, while an additional half a million southerners still in Sudan are at a high risk of statelessness after being stripped of their Sudanese nationality in August 2011.
Corruption, limited revenue hobble South Sudan
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir promises to confront the corruption plaguing his country a year after it declared independence. SOUTH Sudan’s President Salva Kiir promised yesterday to confront the corruption plaguing his country a year after it declared independence and said the new nation’s economy still had to be “liberated” from its dependence on foreign powers. Mr Kiir addressed an assembly of dignitaries and a cheering crowd to mark the nation’s first independence day after splitting from Sudan under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Many South Sudanese hoped the country’s emergence as the world’s newest nation would begin an era of prosperity, but the country has remained mired in disputes with its northern neighbour over oil, the border and many other issues.
Dancing and singing, South Sudanese on July 9 put aside dire warnings over the stability and economic viability of their fledgling nation, the world’s newest, to celebrate its first year of independence. Celebrations began at midnight as crowds took to the streets of the capital, Juba, with people crammed into cars driving around the city and honking horns to mark the anniversary of separation from former civil war foe Sudan. “It is a good day because it’s the first birthday of my country,” said Rachel Adau, a nurse, who arrived soon after dawn to secure a place at the official ceremony, which took place at the mausoleum of the late rebel leader John Garang. “Today is the day we celebrate when the people came out from the Arabs and liberated themselves,” said Michael Kenyi Benjamin, a student. South Sudan has spent the past year wracked by border skirmishes with the rump state of Sudan, as well as internal violence and the shutdown of its vital oil production in a bitter dispute with Khartoum.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-07/10/content_15563295.htm
Oil dispute locks Sudan and South Sudan in ‘mutual economic suicide’
There have been jubilant celebrations in South Sudan to mark the country’s first anniversary. It’s been a tough year. In many respects, the fledgling nation has had to start building its civil society from scratch. And the conflict with neighbouring Sudan continues, as they settle border issues and grapple with a dispute over the South’s oil production. The Federal Government appointed the former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer as Australia’s envoy to South Sudan, with a particular focus on helping that country unlock further resources wealth. Tim Fischer the US special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan describes the current situation as a form of Russian roulette that threatens the success of both countries. They’re locked in a kind of mutual economic suicide approach.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3542587.htm
South Sudan: can Africa’s problem child grow into a valuable partner?
Elijah Matibo sits on a leather sofa in his capacious office high above Nairobi and ponders the conundrum that is South Sudan – an infant country that represents both potential and peril for east Africa. Matibo, who was Kenya’s ambassador to Sudan from …
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