More Violence in Southern Sudan

Southern Sudan says another bout of violence during this week's independence referendum has killed 10 people. Officials say Arab tribesman attacked a bus carrying southern Sudanese from the north to the south, an attack which also wounded 18 others. Another attack on Sunday in the contested region of Abyei killed at least 20 people.

United States Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) is the co-chair of the bipartisan Sudan Caucus in Congress, and a long-time advocate for Southern Sudan. He says the government in Khartoum is crucial to a peaceful referendum.

“They have the capacity to create a lot of problems,” he told Vatican Radio. “They have not had a very good record of keeping their promises…I don’t think you can predict outright success, everything going smooth, without knowing how the government in Khartoum is going to respond.”

However, Congressman Wolf says the Sudanese government has been saying the right things for the past few weeks. He also called on Western countries to help Southern Sudan build its institutions.

“I think economic assistance, educational assistance, health care assistance, and also many governments…can be very helpful in advising the South with regard to international affairs,” he said. “I think everyone in the west will have a moral responsibility to give them whatever help, mainly technical, and some aid…they are a very smart people, but they have not had an educational system for some period of time.”

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Rep. Frank Wolf: