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GUINEA
POTENTIALLY A RICH
COUNTRY
Interview with His Excellency
Amara Camara
Ambassador of Guinea to France
His Excellency Amara Camara Q: After being an inter- is not the ambassador but Amara
is a dedicated man, busy as a national civil servant for Camara who is speaking. I am an
bee. thirty years, today you repre- independent soul and, unfortuna-
sent your country. What are tely, my functions require me to have
You will find him in his office in the major differences? close personal protection. Thus, soli-
his country's embassy in Paris six tary walks, going to the shops or ta-
The biggest change is to be in a king public transport are no longer
or even seven days a week. He
national context, a homogenous possible. All this is a deprivation of
started his career as a student
society where everybody has the liberty, but on the other side, wor-
in UNESCO, and was an inter-
same nationality. I used to work king for one's country, especially
national civil servants for thirty
in an international environment a country in the developing world,
years before retiring. He then with more than 100 different and contributing even a little bit to
set up an association to import nationalities, and with a com- improving the lives of the popula-
containers full of equipment to pletely different way of working. tion, has no price. Therefore, I consi-
Guinea. During all these years I always say that the difference der this deprivation of liberty as an
he continued advocating for between the bilateral and multila- acceptable sacrifice.
his country and was known to teral levels is that in the UN sys-
be one of the leading Guinean tem, in UNESCO, you have a job Q: Could you tell us about your
description and you are judged by country?
intellectuals in the diaspora.
your performance, whereas work-
When the first democratically
ing in bilateral diplomacy you do Indeed, one of my tasks is to talk
elected president took up office
not have a job description -- you about my country, and to make sure
in 2010, Amara Camara was ap-
represent your country in every that when people ask about Guinea
pointed Ambassador to France,
area, every domain and everything they do not ask which one -- Gui-
where he is working hard to put you do is done in the name of your nea Bissau or Equatorial Guinea? It
Guinea on the agenda. country and for your country. You is a country that has suffered a lot.
are depersonalized. You are the First of all, it has a unique history.
Recently, he was appointed person behind the position -- an It was the only former French colony
as the representative of his ambassador -- and that comple- that voted "no" in 1958 to the name
country on the Executive Board tely changes the nature of things. proposed by Charles de Gaulle, the
of UNESCO, quite an honour I have no specific tasks but more French President. This is how we
varied and multiple ones. These became independent, but our first
for a former civil servant who
are the major changes. presidents isolated the country for
had spent his whole career in
almost fifty years. Guinea became a
this organization. We caught up
Q: As the official representa- closed country.
with him in the sixteenth arron-
tive of your country, do you
dissement of Paris and asked
have any personal freedom? The first democratically elected pre-
him to tell us about his country sident took up his functions on 21
-- Guinea. This is perhaps the most difficult December 2010. Prior to that we had
part of my functions and now it had Sekou Touré and then Lansana
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