Scotland will hold an independence referendum on Sept. 18, 2014, its First Minister Alex Salmond said Thursday — a vote that could see it split from the rest of Britain.

The announcement of the date was the latest step in the process toward possible independence for the nation’s 5 million citizens.

Voters will be asked a single question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

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Scotland has a government, in Edinburgh, but remains under the ultimate authority of the United Kingdom. It elects lawmakers to both its own parliament, which handles most day-to-day matters, and the House of Commons in London, which controls defense, immigration and UK-wide taxation.

 

Salmond's pro-independence Scottish National Party, or SNP, won a majority in the Scottish Parliament in May 2011 elections, providing what he called a "once-in-a-generation" chance for Edinburgh to break ties with London.

His deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, said the event would be a "momentous day for Scotland."

But the SNP faces an uphill battle to win the referendum, Reuters reported, with opinion polls putting support for independence at about 30 percent of the electorate in Scotland, while about 50 percent favor the status quo.

Announcing the date as he unveiled the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill in the Scottish Parliament, Salmond said: “I believe it will be the day we take responsibility for our country, when we are able to speak with our own voice, choose our own direction and contribute in our distinct way,” the BBC reported.

The vote is slightly earlier than had been expected and will take place slightly before the Ryder Cup golf tournament is staged at Gleneagles —one of the events that people had assumed would be used to build up a feel-good factor in the run-up to the plebiscite, The Scotsman newspaper reported.

However, The Herald newspaper noted that having the vote earlier allowed independence supporters “to hope for a feelgood bounce” from Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games, which take place in July and August, as well as from the build-up to the Ryder Cup.

The SNP complains that the British Parliament, where members representing Scotland are a small minority because England has a much bigger population of 53 million, does not have the particular interests of the Scottish people at heart.

Reuters summarized the independence debate, shortened to 'indyref' on social media:

The SNP argues that North Sea Oil revenues combined with the local farming, fishing and whisky industries would enable an independent Scotland to prosper.

But other parties in Edinburgh and the London government say both Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom would lose out.

Critics of the SNP say oil reserves are dwindling and Scotland would lose the disproportionately generous share of taxpayer money raised across Britain that it currently receives.

Scottish secession would pose serious challenges to the remainder of the United Kingdom, such as what to do about its Trident nuclear submarine fleet which is based in Scotland.

Reuters contributed to this report.

With rousing speeches, patriotic music and support from actor Sean Connery, supporters of independence for Scotland launched a campaign on Friday that they hope will lead to the demise of a 305-year-old union with England and the breakup of Britain.

"This is the beginning of something really special - the beginning of the campaign to restore nationhood to Scotland," Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), told hundreds of supporters in a hall in the capital Edinburgh.

"We want a Scotland that is fairer and more prosperous."

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The campaign hopes to tap into a blend of historical rivalry, different political tastes, and a perception that the British parliament in London does not safeguard Scotland's interests to win a referendum in 2014, which would pave the way for full independence two years later.

If successful, the drive could create serious problems for Britain, which comprises England, Scotland and Wales (Britain is in turn part of the United Kingdom, which also includes Northern Ireland).

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With its kilts and tartans, bagpipes and whiskey, Scotland has a distinctive, if romanticized, culture. It also has a darker history of poverty, violence and ill health, notably concentrated in the largest city Glasgow, once an engine of the British Empire.

Scotland already has many of the trappings of an independent nation such as its own flag, sports teams, and a history of achievements in science and literature.

Britain's current government, a coalition between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrat Party, is opposed to Scottish independence, as is the opposition Labour Party. Britain is stronger as a union, they argue, and an independent Scotland might struggle on Europe's fringes.

The SNP's Salmond, speaking in front of a giant screen showing a cloud-flecked blue sky, had no such doubts.

He said his aim was to get one million Scots to sign the "Yes Declaration" before the referendum.

Support from Sean Connery
Under a devolved system of government, the Scottish parliament created in 1999 controls health, education and prisons, while the British government in London controls everything else, including foreign policy and defense.

"If the parliament can run education, why can't we run the economy? And if we can protect our old people why can't we protect ourselves without the obscenity of nuclear weapons?" Salmond told the audience.

The launch event drew on rousing patriotic music and a film showing the country's stunning Highland landscapes, fishermen, universities, and, inevitably, leaping kilt-clad dancers.

It also relied on celebrity endorsement. A message of support was read out from actor Sean Connery, an Edinburgh milkman before he found fame as secret agent James Bond.

Hollywood actor Brian Cox called Scotland's current predicament "centralized servitude" and related how, like many Scots, he had become disenchanted by previous Labour governments led by former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

"The parliament at Westminster can see no further than the end of its own bridge," he said.

Scotland's national poet Liz Lochhead read out a poem focused on English-Scottish rivalry in the 16th century.

Opinion polls show that around 40 percent of Scottish people are sympathetic to independence, with around 10 percent undecided and the remaining 50 percent opposed. South of the border in England, polls show people are largely apathetic.

Author Harry Reid said the referendum's success may hinge on whether the Labour Party, traditionally popular in Scotland, can revive its fortunes.

Scotland is more inclined to vote for the left, whereas English voters have voted in much larger numbers for the right, underscoring a political fault line between north and south.

Although the Conservative Party won more votes than any other party at the last British general election in 2010, it won only one parliamentary seat in Scotland.

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One joke doing the rounds since two Chinese pandas took up residence in Edinburgh Zoo notes that there are now more pandas in Scotland than Conservative MPs.

Diminished role?
Scotland's preference for a more center-left brand of politics that favors egalitarianism over the free market is reflected in education policy. In England, students have to pay large tuition fees to attend university, whereas in Scotland such education remains free for Scots.

Reid said disenchanted Labour voters who switched to the SNP in disgust at Labour's support for U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan may yet return to the fold. If they do, Scotland's dreams of independence could evaporate, he said.

"If we're going to get a decent Labour government back in 2015 people might wonder whether they really need independence."

Despite its relatively small population of just over five million, compared to England's population of just over 52 million, there are also fears that a "yes" vote would diminish Britain's voice on the world stage.

"The rest of the world would be surprised and shocked that the UK was unable to hold together," Professor John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde told Reuters in a phone interview.

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Britain would find it harder to maintain its voice within international bodies such as at the U.N. Security Council or the European Union.

There are also questions about whether Britain would be able to keep its nuclear submarine fleet in Scotland, where it's now based. Also, revenues from Scottish North Sea oil remain important to its coffers.

But history runs deep and, symbolically, the independence referendum will be held on the 700th anniversary of the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn, when an army commanded by England's King Edward II was defeated by a smaller force led by Robert the Bruce, a source of enduring pride for Scottish patriots.

Scotland and England have shared a monarch since 1603 and have been ruled by one single parliament in London since 1707. The SNP's Salmond has said an independent Scotland would retain Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch.

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Benny Wenda was born in a village of the Lani people in the Baliem valley, a remote and beautiful mountain region of West Papua. It should have been an idyllic childhood.

Instead Wenda says one of his earliest memories is the bombing of his village in 1977; that at the age of five he witnessed his aunts being raped — "it make me hard cry, you know?"  — and that later his uncle Kepas was beaten and buried alive.

The culprits, he told msnbc.com, were Indonesia's security forces.

• Interpol faces legal threat for helping oppressive regimes hunt dissidents

As an adult, Wenda became a leader of the campaign for West Papuan independence. But he then found himself accused of inciting people to attack a police station and an arson attack that resulted in several deaths.

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While awaiting sentence in 2002, he escaped prison after hearing rumors he was going to be killed and fled Indonesia.

Wenda was granted asylum in Britain and settled down with his family in Oxford, while still continuing to campaign for freedom for his people and setting up his own website.

But late last year, he became aware that Interpol had issued a "red notice" for him at Indonesia's request and that he was listed as a "wanted person" on Interpol's website.

"I think Indonesia is just trying to stop me and my campaign," he told msnbc.com. "Because I'm getting support around the world, that's why they put Interpol on me. I'm telling the truth and I'm standing for my people."

'Justice, freedom and dignity'
Wenda admitted there was an armed resistance movement in West Papua, but said they were freedom fighters, not terrorists.

"They are standing for justice, freedom and dignity," he said.

Wenda said some fighters had guns but "mainly they are fighting with bows and arrows."

"They know where to go, they are hiding on their own lands, hiding in the bush," he said, of their conflict with one of the world's largest militaries.

"We're not scared of those Indonesians, because we are standing for our rights," Wenda said.

In 2004, a 75-page Yale Law School report detailed bombings of the Baliem Valley in 1977, citing a former Indonesian official's estimate that 3,000 people had died.

"The Jakarta daily, Kompas, reported ... (the) 'Baliem River was so full of corpses that for a month and a half ... people could not bring themselves to eat fish'," the report said.

Natural resources
Wenda said while the U.S., U.K. and other countries had previously been mainly interested in the region's natural resources, he sensed "a new generation" of politicians were changing their views.

In October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced her concern about violence and human rights violations in the region, the Jakarta Globe reported in an article that said 2011 had been "marked by violence and increased militarization."

Indonesia says West Papua — officially divided by Indonesia into the regions of Papua and West Papua, names rejected by Wenda — belongs to them because it was part of the Dutch East Indies colony, which became independent as Indonesia in 1949.

The Dutch retained control over West Papua at that time and in 1961, Indonesia threatened to invade. After discussions at the United Nations, it was decided to let West Papuans make the decision in an "Act of Free Choice" in 1969. Just over 1,000 specially chosen tribal leaders voted.

'A Greek tragedy'
According to an article published by The George Washington University in 2004, a secret U.S. Embassy telegram in 1969 said the Act was "unfolding like a Greek tragedy, the conclusion preordained."

"Dissident activity is likely to increase but the Indonesian armed forces will be able to contain and, if necessary, suppress it," it added.

Ambassador Frank Galbraith said in another secret 1969 document that "possibly 85 to 90 percent" of the population "are in sympathy with the Free Papua cause." He added that recent Indonesian military operations had resulted in the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands of civilians, leading to rumors of "intended genocide."

However, secret briefing papers show that Henry Kissinger told President Richard Nixon not to raise the West Papuan issue on a July 1969 visit to Indonesian capital Jakarta, the GWU article said.

According to Amnesty International, "human rights violations are a daily reality" in modern-day West Papua.

"Freedom of express and association are severely restricted. Since the late 1990s, hundreds of people have been arrested for pro-independence activities, and dozens of peaceful protesters remain in prison," Amnesty says on its website.

"Reports indicate that the security forces use unnecessary force during demonstrations, and torture those who are perceived to be pro-independence supporters ... torture by Indonesian police is also widespread," it adds.

In Nov. 2001, BBC News quoted an Indonesian official as saying Wenda was part of a "clandestine organization dedicated to secede from Indonesia using any means available to them."

Billy Wibisono, Third Secretary (Information and Socio-Cultural Affairs) at the Indonesian Embassy in London, told the BBC: "Mr. Wenda and several other accomplices participated in an attack of the Abepura Police Station on December 7, 2000 and caused the deaths and destruction of property."

He told the BBC that six police officers and civilians were killed. Wibisono added that the red notice would be withdrawn if Wenda "can prove his innocence in our court of law."

Father of six
Now a U.K. citizen and living with his wife Maria and six children, aged from one-and-a-half to 11, Wenda said he was confident he is safe from the Indonesian authorities.

"I'm not alone, because all the British people are surrounding me. They are really nice people," he said, adding that he has not heard anything from the British authorities about the red notice.

But his children are not so certain.

"They are really scared. My oldest daughter ... she really worries because 'I don't want my daddy in prison again, I don't want my daddy tortured again,'" he said.

"I'm confident one day my people will be free, just like other people. That is my dream: One day my people will be able to get freedom."

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