The InterDependent

As South Sudan, the world’s newest country, prepares for its independence from Sudan on July 9, it is also likely to become the 193rd United Nations member when the General Assembly votes on the matter on July 14.

People from all over the world are expected to join the official independence festivities in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, a day that will mark the culmination of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended Sudan’s 21-year civil war and gave the southern region a right to self-determination.

Salva Kiir Mayardit will be heading the Juba events as president of South Sudan, which has about eight million people. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan is also expected to attend. Bashir, who is based in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and other charges. South Sudan is not a party to the Rome Statute, which governs the court.

About 1,500 foreign dignitaries are also arriving in Juba, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a U.S. delegation representing President Obama led by Susan E. Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN. Rice will be accompanied by, among others, Colin Powell, who helped broker the 2005 peace agreement, and Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan.

“This will be a joyous day for all the southern Sudanese who have been taking place in the struggle and who have suffered a lot under the political marginalization in Sudan,” David Boum Choat, the political, UN and Congressional officer of South Sudan’s mission to the UN, said in a phone interview with The InterDependent. He estimated that 500,000 South Sudanese will be attending Independence Day celebrations throughout the country.

A festive spirit is also apparent in U.S. communities where former Sudanese refugees have settled.

Paul Banks/UN Photo

Tribal dancers preparing for Independence Day events on July 9 in Juba, the capital. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is attending.

“We worked hard and we are grateful that we went through the referendum, because we are ready to be free,” said Emmanuel Mathiang, a local Sudanese organizer of a party in Hillsborough Township, N.J., to be held on Saturday. [To view a slide show of an event held near the UN in New York, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/unausa/sets/72157627194108516/].

In Syracuse, N.Y., another former Sudanese refugee, Dominic Mathiang, said of his feelings about South Sudan's voyage out, “I have no term to describe it.”

“All in all, freedom will prevail,” Mathiang added, “I’m happy indeed.”

The cultural programs taking place in Juba will feature representatives of the region’s 64 ethnic groups – among them, the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Azande and Bari tribes. South Sudan’s choir will sing the new national anthem, which begins: “Oh God! We praise and glorify you for your grace on South Sudan/the land of great abundance/uphold us united in peace and harmony. (To hear a full rendition, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n67AKQQQEmw.)

In Washington, D.C., the South Sudan mission to the UN is holding a flag raising and inviting the public to additional festivals in Arlington and in Alexandria, Va. (For information, go to http://www.gossmission.org/goss/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)

The new country's struggle for independence came after the civil war between the northern region and the southern part of Sudan, a battle that claimed more than two million lives and displaced more than four million people. The referendum to determine whether the south would secede was a major component of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Paul Banks/UN Photo

Revelers showing the country's new flag.

The results of the vote, held in January 2011, were overwhelmingly in favor of the south's breaking away. But fighting from the north and the south over border territories – Abyei and Southern Kordofan, primarily – flared soon after and to this day remains a hot spot, potentially threatening Independence Day events and even inflaming another civil war.

The leaders of Sudan, who have been blamed for inciting most of the border incursions, agreed recently to resolve tensions by the end of the month, in negotiations conducted by the U.S., the UN and others. An interim UN force from Ethiopia is being dispatched to Abyei to help ease the withdrawal of the north's Sudanese Army.