State Sovereignty
This is in reference to a statement I made which was horribly misconstrued (180 degrees). The statement was in the same vein as that made by Joe Biden about Iraq - in the interests of peace and stability and minimizing religious strife, Iraq should be divided into three states. It did not happen because it would have been unfair economically. It is well known that throughout history, the colonizers (and others) arbitrarily divided up the lands belonging to other people, often resulting in continuing religious violence where people of differing beliefs are constrained in the same country, when in many cases they should be in separate countries.
Recent cases where this has resulted in the creation of new states, in an attempt to bring PEACE and STABILITY to a region, are below. The thought of state creation to ease religious strife and to respect the rights of others - often of indigenous peoples - is not new. It was not pilloried as was done on DU, and has been supported at the highest levels of the UN - and it has had good results in many cases.
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Sudan
South Sudan peacefully seceded from Sudan following a January 2011 referendum. Sudan itself was the first to recognize South Sudan.
Australia
There are also supporters of an Aboriginal state, along the lines of the recently created Nunavut in Canada. The Aboriginal Provisional Government http://www.apg.org.au/ was established in 1990 for the purpose; Paul Coe sued the Commonwealth for Aboriginal sovereignty (Coe v Commonwealth (1979) HCA 68) and see Kevin Gilbert 'Treaty 88'. All advocated for an Aboriginal state.(7) Agence France Presse (21/8/98) claims Australia blocked a United Nations resolution calling for the self-determination of peoples, because it would have bolstered support for an Aboriginal state within Australia.(8) Among those supporting such a state are the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.(9) (-- Personal opinion: I hope there is an Aboriginal state ---)
Canada
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act(7) and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act,(8) though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map since the incorporation of the new province of Newfoundland in 1949. Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada, and most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, making it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world.
India
Several new states and union territories have been created out of existing states since 1956. Bombay State was split into the linguistic states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 May 1960(11) by the Bombay Reorganization Act. Nagaland was made a state on 1 December 1963.(12) The Punjab Reorganization Act of 1966 divided the Punjab along linguistic lines, creating a new Hindi-speaking state of Haryana on 1 November,(13) transferring the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh, and designating Chandigarh, the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana, a union territory.(14)
Statehood was conferred upon Himachal Pradesh(15) on 25 January 1971, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura(16) on 21 January 1972 the Kingdom of Sikkim joined the Indian Union as a state on 26 April 1975.(17) In 1987, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram became states on 20 February, followed by Goa on 30 May, while Goa's northern exclaves of Daman and Diu became a separate union territory.(18)
In 2000 three new states were created; Chhattisgarh (1 November 2000) was created out of eastern Madhya Pradesh,(19) Uttaranchal (9 November 2000), since renamed Uttarakhand, was created out of the Hilly regions of northwest Uttar Pradesh,(20) and Jharkhand (15 November 2000) was created out of the southern districts of Bihar.(21) The Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry have since been given the right to elect their own legislatures and they are now counted as small states.(citation needed)
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Fifteen new countries became independent with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Most of these countries declared independence a few months preceding the fall of the Soviet Union in late 1991. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan
Former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s into five independent countries.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia
Montenegro part of Serbia and Montenegro, gained independence after a referendum.
Serbia became its own entity after Montenegro split.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.
Former Czechoslovakia
The Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent nations
Southern Africa
Namibia became independent of South Africa.
Lesotho and Swaziland have been independent of, although completely surrounded by, South Africa for years.
Yemen
North and South Yemen merged to form a unified Yemen.
Germany
East Germany and West Germany merged to form a unified Germany,
United States
The Marshall Islands gained independence from Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) gained independence.
Palau was part of the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) and gained independence.
Micronesia became independent from the United States.
Native American Indians have their own sovereign states.
Ethopia
Eritrea seceded and gained independence.
Portugal
May 20, 2002 - East Timor declared independence from Portugal in 1975 but did not became independent from Indonesia until 2002.
Mozambique and Angola also became independent from Portugal.
If the creation of a new state can eliminate religious strife from other states, i.e. PROMOTE PEACE, then, as shown above it has been considered and actually implemented throughout history and given the blessings of not only the UN but legislative bodies in respective countries.
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I would respectfully request any explanation as to why my comment was misconstrued, and if none are forthcoming, then the action against that statement be rescinded.
= new reply since forum marked as read
