Get To Know Brazil interviews >> THE GUIDE interviewed the Ambassador of Sudan MR. Rahamtalla Mohamed Osman, Ambassador of Sudan Living in Brasília since March of 2004, Ambassador Rahamtalla Mohamed Osman tells THE GUIDE how the Republic of Sudan intend to expand its foreign relations with Brazil and benefit from the Brazilian experience in organizing a federal system, agriculture, oil exploration, sports and other areas. Excited with the recently signed peace agreements with the rebel groups in Sudan, Ambassador Rahamtalla Mohamed Osman shares with THE GUIDE his expectations of better times in Sudan. THE GUIDE How long have you been in Brazil? Ambassador Osman I have been here since March of 2004, I presented my credentials to President Lula on April 13th, when we consider that we launched the mission here in Brazil. We have chosen this quarters after a number of other Embassies were established here, such as Sweden and Morocco, for some time. This is a good building and we are pleased to be here. THE GUIDE What do you think of Brasília? Ambassador Osman In fact, this is the first time I come to this part of the world. This is the first Embassy of Sudan in any country of South America and I think we came very late to Brazil. We should have been here for some time, now, in order to benefit from the experience of Brazil. THE GUIDE What does your family think of Brasília? Ambassador Osman Yes, they love it. My wife is really happy and my children already speak excellent Portuguese. They are in high school and my daughter is in college now, they are fully adapting and we are very happy to live in Brasília, it is a very special city. THE GUIDE Have you been to other places in Brazil? Ambassador Osman Yes, I have been to Rio de Janeiro in a business trip, where I met the director of Petrobras, organization that we believe has a very rich experience in oil exploration and in the oil industry. Oil was recently discovered in Sudan, only in the 90's, and it has been explored by companies from the South, so far, by companies from China, Malaysia, India . Then we thought it would be interesting to add other options when exploring the oil in Sudan and we would like to host Petrobras for this matter. So, that was my first visit to Rio, for business, but I had the chance to stroll around and see that beautiful city. It is very beautiful with its very famous beaches. I have also been to São Paulo, another amazing city, a metropolitan city, when Sudan signed with the State of São Paulo an agreement of cooperation to the studies of Sudanese youngsters in exchange programs, here in Brazil. And another beautiful city I have visited is Porto Alegre, where I have been twice. The last time was merely one month ago, with a Sudanese professor, who contacted the National University of Porto Alegre in order to negotiate agreements of mutual cooperation between universities in Brazil and Sudan. I also took the opportunity to visit the charming cities nearby, famous for their delicious chocolates, Canela, Gramado. THE GUIDE Do you see many differences between Sudan and Brazil? Ambassador Osman Well, when I came here I came to learn that we have similarities. At least the cultural setup of Brazil is almost typical to the one we have in Sudan, with the multi ethnical society. The good thing is that Brazil manage to create a unity out of this diversity of ethnic groups, which gave the people a very rich culture. It is the same in Sudan. We have, you will be astonished when I tell you, about 150 dialects in Sudan for it is a big country, 2.5 millions square kilometers and we are bordering 10 countries, another similarity with Brazil that is bordering 10 countries as well. And another similarity is the climate. As Sudan is an vast country and from Latitude 22 and the Sahara desert, in the North, to latitude 4 and the tropical climate in the South, there is a great diversity, just as in Brazil. That has it merits, for when we have different climatical zones, you have different crops. That, actually, is another thing in which we would like to benefit from the relationships with Brazil, the experience in agriculture. THE GUIDE How are the bilateral affairs between Sudan and Brazil? Ambassador Osman It is going great. We are just starting but the opportunities are very promising. So far, the goal has been to meet with the officials in all these areas we have interest. For instance, I have met with the director of Embrapa (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária), which we believe has done a beautiful, magnificent job here in Brazil. Sudan is an agricultural country, we have a lot of land that have not yet been used and with the rich soil of Sudan, the Nile, the rains, there are very good opportunities. But to achieve better results, we have to use the new technologies which are being used now in Brazil, a country which multiplied the size of the crops 5 to 6 times in the last 30 years, due to the use of theses technologies and the wonderful work of Embrapa. We are here to exchange knowledge and to learn from the experience of Brazil. The first thing we are embarking on is to learn how to create a feasible federal system. Brazil has a good experience over years and has managed to create a good federal system and it is working very well. That is also an area we wish to benefit from the relations with Brazil. Anyway, so far all these institutions we have visited have received very well the cooperation with Sudan. We are talking to see the possibilities and how we can benefit from the experience of Brazil. As you know, Brazil has invited the Arab countries and countries from Latin America to this huge summit, led by President Lula. We expect to come with a big delegation, including the President of Sudan and we hope that this meeting will be the beginning of the real business with Brazil, signing some agreements to cover the cooperation between Sudan and Brazil. THE GUIDE Are there many Sudanese living in Brazil? Ambassador Osman Not really, there are only a few Sudanese living in Brazil, maybe less than one hundred. THE GUIDE How is the National Day celebrated in your country? Ambassador Osman Well, this year we have a very important celebration. As you may recall, on December 31 st of 2004 we signed the peace agreement with the southern rebels after a long, long war in Africa . This war started even before our independence, in 1955, only interrupted by 10 years of peace with another peace agreement that was effective between 1972 and 1982. But in the end of this year, I guess we could say this was our present to the world because ending a war is welcome by everybody and this war was very severe, we lost a great number of people and many resources. In fact, it drained all the resources of Sudan. And with this agreement signed with the southern rebels, we have paved the way to succeed in signing the peace agreement with the western rebel group, the Agreement was signed on 9 th of January 2005 in Nairobi, with the presence of many leaders of the African countries, Europe and the United States of America, with a delegation led by Mr. Colin Powell himself. So the celebrations of our National Day, this year, are much happier. We feel like we were not independent until we ended this war and the celebrations are much more joyful now, and jubilant. Since the peace agreement signed on December 31 st, the people all over the country are rejoicing and it feels that we really have paved the way to a new Sudan, to be built on confidence between all the citizens. Our joy is not yet complete because of the problems in the western part of Sudan but we are hopeful to be in peace there as well, now that things are more calm and with the agreement signed with the southern rebels, once our government has officially announced that this agreement with the South are valid to all other parts of the country. There is no logic in continuing the conflicts any more. And then, when things are in the right directions, we will have a great celebration here in Brasília which is postponed not ruled out, just waiting for the right moment, when we are not suffering from these problems any more. THE GUIDE What is the government regime in your country? Ambassador Osman We are a presidential republic, with a multi party system with and elected president, an elected general national assembly and due to this agreement, we will have another election after three years from now and there will be elections for all levels of the government, up to the president. It will be a general election, internationally monitored, to guarantee the transparency of the process. THE GUIDE What is the foreign policy of your country? Ambassador Osman We are in good relations with all countries. In fact, this peace agreement was mediated by friendly countries of the region we are member of the IGAD group, an intergovernmental group for development, between Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda. And now, not only this countries, that are bordering Sudan, but others like Libya, Egypt and even others a little further, such as Nigeria, are helping to solve the problems in Darfur. So, our foreign policy will gain strength among our brothers in Africa and our brothers throughout the world, politically, economically and in all areas. THE GUIDE What about sports? Do the Sudanese like soccer? Ambassador Osman That is also another area we expect to learn from Brazil. The Sudanese love soccer, we even received the visit of Pele, in 1970, it was a huge occasion, memorized by everybody in Sudan. All the people are very fond of football. The sports are not as expressive as we would expect it to be due to many difficulties we have gone through, but now it is time to invest again in sports.