جنوب السودان - بحثا عن هوية جديدة (مقال في الايكونوميست)

Quote: Southern Sudan Looking for a new identity Jul 26th 2007 | NAIROBI From The Economist print edition And finding a paradise not yet lost IN MANY respects, south Sudan is already its own country. It issues its own visas, decides most its own policies and mishandles its own budget. Of course, tricky deals over the ownership of oil and the Nile waters must be negotiated before full independence. And there is always a small chance that the Sudan People's Liberation Movement ( SPLM ), which runs the south, may do well enough in elections for all of Sudan (due to be held in 2009) to alter the shape of Sudanese politics overall, the north included. But as things stand, almost all southerners believe that, after a referendum promised by the central government in Khartoum, south Sudan will become a sovereign country by 2011. That raises new questions. For one thing, what would the new country be called? The betting is on New Sudan, the name favoured by John Garang, the SPLM 's charismatic leader killed in a helicopter crash in 2005. But establishing the new country's identity will be harder. Even SPLM zealots accept that the largely Christian and animist south cannot define itself just negatively, in opposition to the Muslim north. Many leading lights in the south Sudanese government, including the president, Salva Kiir, want the new country, whatever it is called, to become part of east Africa rather than a southern spin-off from the rest of Sudan, which is mainly Arab and Muslim and looks more to the Arab world. South Sudan's economy would tilt to the south and east. Most trade goes via Uganda. In Juba, the southern capital, the most-used mobile-phone network operates from Uganda with a Ugandan code and Ugandan local rates, while calls to Khartoum are deemed international. There is also talk (in South African and German circles, among others) of building a railway from Juba, south Sudan's capital, to Gulu in Uganda, to connect with the main east-African network. Most of south Sudan's diplomatic links are through Kenya. Some schools are already replacing Arabic with English. Another new way to nudge south Sudan into east Africa is through wildlife and tourism, especially after a recent discovery that south Sudan's wild game is far more abundant than had previously been reckoned. Earlier this year, the Wildlife Conservation Society, an American outfit, uncovered one of the world's biggest animal migrations in south Sudan. Conservationists flying low over uncharted territory discovered a vast array of wildlife, especially in Boma, along the border with Ethiopia. Paul Elkan, the Kenya-based Wildlife Conservation Society's main man for south Sudan, says the scale of migration may exceed that of Tanzania's Serengeti. "It is a paradise not yet lost," says an ecstatic Mr Kiir, who has already signed agreements with the conservationists. An immediate goal is to limit the destruction caused by the oil business. Thanks to graft and negligence, Chinese and other contractors have installed massive and polluting infrastructure across the south with no environmental oversight. In the long run, Mr Kiir hopes to set up a national parks system to protect the Boma migration, improve land management and provide jobs for former fighters as rangers and guides. A grander hope is that it could bolster New Sudan's new identity--and its claim to be part of east Africa.