Page 41 - DIVA_4_2006_No.27

Sudanese week in Geneva

Interview with His Excellency 1

Mohamed Yousif Abed Allah,
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports,

Sudan

Among the Sudanese,
the last fifty years as a place
they should not lose the conti'ibutions of the rest of
he is known as of war, a place of conflict, connection with their origins theworld. Therefore, Italked
"Sultan" as he is the but Sudan is a nation. The
and the place from where to the Director of the Swiss
descendant of the Sudanese are a people with a they come. When they are Agency for Intennational Co-
Sultan of Darfur, a history going backmore than present here we would like operation, and he now has a
Sultanate that was dis- 7,000 years. Tl'iey are a them to be good representah- copy of that project. We will
strong nation with a strong
mantled by the British ves of our people. Tliey can also pursue this same idea
civilizat'on, and therefore it
in 1916 after a rule of tell tlie Swiss how good the with the Swiss people.
must also be clear that this
500 years. His Sudanese are and iii this way
Excellency is not only tiny pait of our present histo- be useful to both comrnutu- Q: Do you have a message
iy will soon be overcoine. ties. for the international com-

a man of culture, but
munity?
he has also been the
Q: You said that you have Q: You also the
Chief Negotiator in the are
more than 7,000 years of Minister of Youth and We would like to say that the
Abuja Peace Talks bet-
history.Are you now trying Sports. Are you going to media is mostly concentra-
ween the Government
to market this to the rest of discuss these subjects with ting on reporting the
and the Rebels in the world and thereby the internationaJ conflicts-making news out
Darfur. He has also commu-
attract more tourists? nity during your stay here? of conflict. We would like
been Minister of State
the media to work with us in
for Humanitarian That's one pait of it. We Over the last twelve moths the area of building peace in
Affairs.
worild lilce to sell this rich
we have been making new the minds of people. This
histoiy to tlie rest of the plans for sports development means focusing on the peace
Q: What is your reason for world. We are also saying to
iii the coruihy. We now have culture, on the reconciliation
coming to Geneva? tlie people living in a clear picture. In the past, issues, On peaceful coexis-
Switzerland tl'iat Sudan is a we had some problems due tence, ontolerance anddeve-
We are coining l'iere to inau- multi-etbnic, multi-racial, to conflict in tl'ie counhy, but lopment issues. If we can
gurate the Sudanese Cultiiral multi-religious, multi-cultu- now all of these pieces are concentrate on these issues,
Week in Geneva, organized ral society, and all these dif- coming togetl'ier and we we are sure that the conflicts
by the Sudanese people WIIO ferent ethiucities are expres-
would like to reach all of will be ininimized and peo-
are living in Switzerland. We sed in tliis exhibitioxi. tliese places. Spoits for ple will be able to commtt
would like to biiiig them the Therefore, we are able to Peace and Developmet'it - themselves in areas that are
culiure of Sudan, tlieir ruffte orirselves throrigh the
we would like to unite peo- riseful to tliem and the rest of
"home" culhire. We would diversity of all the different
ple tbrorigh spoits acttvthes tlie world. Therefore, we
like their children to la'iow peoples living in Sudan.
and we would like people in would like to invite the inter-
what the histoiy of Sudan is, national coinmunity
different parts of the coruxhy to work
wliat is the nahire of the peo- Q: You said earlier that you
to iinprove tliemselves by with ris on the Culture of
ple li'viiig iit Sudan, how would like the Sudanese taking exercise. We liave Peace.
those great people of the past living in Switzerland to presented the project of a
were able to sru'vive and to knowmore abouttheir cultu- low-cost sports infrashuctu-
live together. It is also a way
re. Are you afraid that they re to the United Nations, and
of explainiiig Sudanese cul- have become too we would like tlie UN to
ture to the people of "European)'? conti'ibute iii building the
Switzerland, wl'fflch we belie- simplest fonn of spotts
ve is one way of presenting aniat is not exactly the case,
iiasti'uctiu'e in war-affected
ourselves to tlie other paits but we feel that wl'ien some- paits of the coruihy-in the
of the world. body is liyii'ig elsewliere they
Soritli, iii tlie East, in the
adapt to the con'unutty in West and iii the Noitb. We
Sudanhas beenpomayedfor which they are liviiig. But worild lilce to receive the
5 2006 Diva 39
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