Posted on 07/09/2011 2:29:18 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
After Years of Struggle, South Sudan Becomes a New Nation By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
JUBA, South Sudan The celebrations erupted at midnight. Thousands of revelers poured into Jubas steamy streets in the predawn hours on Saturday, hoisting enormous flags, singing, dancing and leaping on the back of cars.
Freedom! they screamed.
A new nation was being born in what used to be a forlorn, war-racked patch of Africa, and to many it seemed nothing short of miraculous. After more than five decades of an underdog, guerrilla struggle and two million lives lost, the Republic of South Sudan, Africas 54th state, was about to declare its independence in front of a whos who of Africa, including the president of the country letting it go: Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, a war-crimes suspect.
Many of those who turned out to celebrate, overcome with emotion, spoke of their fathers, mothers, sons and daughters killed in the long struggle to break free from the Arab-dominated north.
My whole body feels happy, said George Garang, an English teacher who lost his father, grandfather and 11 brothers in the war.
By sunrise, the crowds were surging through the streets of Juba, the capital, to the government quarter, where the declaration of independence would be read aloud. Thousands of soldiers lined the freshly painted curbs, tiger patches on their arms, assault rifles in their hands. This new nation is being built on a guerrilla army the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army, whose field commanders are now South Sudans political leaders and the amount of firepower here is unnerving.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We’re losing our freedom, they are gaining theirs.
What an excellent letter
I hope the writr did not mean to imply anything by using the phrase “ by hook or crook”
I think he only meant W worked very hard
seeing this makes me miss Bush all the more and hate tht lying marxist POS 0dumbo all the more
thanks for posting that link to that letter
South Sudans president, Salva Kiir, wearing his signature black cowboy hat given to him by Mr. Bush, signed the interim Constitution.
The new president of South Sudan shaking hands with GW Bush. The new president (Salva Mayardit Kiir) is wearing a cowboy hat that GW Bush gave him.
Do you really think that they will maintain their freedom unless someone guarantees it?
Wow
Wonderful picture
This man gets it and I predict a good future for his country
thanks for the pics
Obama Administration Takes Credit for Birth of South Sudan
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-administration-takes-credit-birth
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lol; of course he does...
Congrats to South Sudan!
This makes yet another country I’ve been to that wasn’t a country when I was there!
I hope they can keep it together. There is a lot of tribal infighting in this area.
I’m happy for them. I just wish that they had chosen a different name.
Now they are a nation.
No matter what fraud-boy says. That hat says something else!
Glad to see they have their own country, not like Obama is going to help them.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir arrives at the independence ceremony of South Sudan in Juba, South Sudan, on Saturday July 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Andrew Burton)
South Sudan President Salva Kiir lifts South Sudan's new constitution to the crowds of people attending an independence ceremony in Juba, South Sudan, on Saturday July 9, 2011.
Of course not. I never intimated anything of the sort.
I am just struck by the irony of the situation.
Our politicians (government) show so much concern for "spreading democracy" around the world while they work so hard at home to erode our freedoms and extend their control over every aspect of our lives.
They see the tyranny of other government figuress but are blind to their own.
Would you prefer "North Uganda"?
They could have called it Bushland......
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