Detained in Khartoum

(Sept. 20, 2010) Khartoum, Sudan – It was my first day back in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where I am reporting this year on the upcoming 2011 referendum in which southern Sudanese will vote on whether they want to become an independent nation. They are widely expected to support the measure, but many worry that the north, which has long dominated Sudan’s government, will resist southern independence because they do not want to lose access to the vast oil reserves in the south. With my press accreditation in hand, I headed to the impoverished areas on the outskirts of the capital to interview southerners who had fled here during decades of civil war in the south. One of the displaced men introduced himself to me and began an earnest rendition of the many challenges facing southerners living in the north when some twenty armed policemen descended on the area. Read rest of the article as it appeared . . .