South Sudan chooses to secede: official results

Close to 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a landmark January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday.Earlier partial results had put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

Almost 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north and create a new country in a January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday.Earlier partial results had already put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

Close to 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results published Sunday.Updated figures published on the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission's website and accounting for 100 percent of ballots cast in both the north and the south gave secession an overwhelming 98.83 percent of the vote.

South Sudanese president Salva Kiir urged his people on Sunday to "forgive" the north for a devastating 1983-2005 civil war, in his first public declaration since a landmark independence vote ended.Speaking from the pulpit in the Saint Theresa Roman Catholic cathedral in regional capital Juba, Kiir said: "For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace."And may we, like Jesus Christ on the cross, forgive those who have forcefully caused their deaths."

South Sudanese president Salva Kiir said on Saturday that there was no alternative to peaceful coexistence with the north as his people prepared to vote on independence after five decades of conflict."Today there is no return to war," Kiir said, speaking in the grounds of the presidential state house in the southern regional capital Juba. "There is no substitute for peaceful coexistence."Fellow compatriots, we are left only with a few hours to make the most vital and extremely important decision of our lifetime.

The president of the autonomous region of south Sudan was sworn in on Friday, after being declared winner last month in the country's first competitive elections in more than two decades.Salva Kiir, the head of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement, was sworn in as the first elected president of south Sudan, in a ceremony in the southern capital Juba carried by state television.Kiir was declared winner with 92.99 percent of the votes, in an election that was marred by accusations of fraud and logistical problems.