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Southern Sudan Nears a Decision on One Matter: Its New Name

JUBA, Sudan — Southern Sudan, which recently carried out a referendum on seceding from the north, will be named the Republic of South Sudan upon independence, officials here in the regional capital said Sunday.

While the name is not yet official, members of a steering committee on post-independence governing said the decision, made last week, could be announced as early as Feb. 14, when final results from this month’s historic referendum come out.

“The majority preference is for South Sudan,” said Benjamin Marial, minister of information for the southern government and a member of the steering committee, which is working on the name of the country along with other issues.

According to the latest ballot figures, nearly 99 percent of southern Sudanese voters have chosen separation from the mostly Arab north after decades of brutal civil war. The north is under American economic sanctions and Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and war crimes in the Darfur region.

“We’ve had South Korea, North Korea, South Vietnam, North Vietnam,” Mr. Marial said. “South Sudan and North Sudan.”

According to Mr. Marial, more than a dozen potential names had been put forth, but the Republic of South Sudan was chosen out of familiarity and convenience.

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The name Republic of South Sudan has been proposed.Credit...The New York Times

“It is the easiest one for the time being; there are already many things with that name,” he said, referring to numerous ministries and agencies already using that name. “It makes it easy to transform the government.”

Mr. Marial said the committee’s recommendation would be passed along to a higher council for a final decision, but he was not expecting any resistance.

Southern Sudan has a long list of technical and fundamental changes to make before becoming independent. The south currently operates under an interim constitution, established after an American-backed peace treaty brought the civil war to an end in 2005, but the interim constitution has to be rewritten and streamlined to accommodate a fully sovereign state. So does the legal code.

Other decisions that need to be made, Mr. Marial said, include adoption of an official coat of arms, a national flag and a national anthem.

“There are many things to change,” Mr. Marial said. “But should the people of South Sudan in the future want a new name, they will have that chance.”

Since southern Sudan’s separatist movement began in the mid-1950s, a number of names have been proposed for this region. Mr. Marial said some of the more popular choices among the committee members included Azania, Nile Republic, Kush Republic and even Juwama, an acronym for Juba, Wau and Malakal, three major southern cities.

After decades of brutal civil war, during which villages were burned and southerners enslaved, the birthing of this nation has been a highly emotional process. Even the logistical details have carried great symbolic meaning — from choosing ballot logos to naming the country.

A number of delicate matters still need to be negotiated between north and south Sudan, including rights to citizenship, an agreement on sharing oil revenue and control over the contested Abyei region, which straddles both parts of the country.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Southern Sudan Nears a Decision on One Matter: Its New Name. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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