WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The environment is constructive ahead of a Sunday referendum that could pave the way to a new nation in South Sudan, a U.S. State Department spokesman said.
Nearly 4 million people in South Sudan, about half of the regional population, head to the voting booth Sunday to decide whether to break from the rest of the country. The referendum is part of a comprehensive peace agreement reached in 2005 that ended decades of civil conflict.
Logistical and political hurdles caused some problems with the referendum process, though P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the State Department, said during a regular briefing that Washington was optimistic about the measure.
"We believe that the right signals are being sent both in North and South in terms of the upcoming referendum and respecting the results," he said. "So the environment, we think, is constructive leading into this weekend".
There are lingering concerns about post-referendum issues like border demarcation and citizenship, he added. A referendum for the oil district of Abyei is idled over who can vote on self-determination.
Washington is sending several top diplomats to Sudan ahead of the vote. The Sudan Tribune notes that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State Colin Powell are among those headed to the region. UPI
