The following interview would not have been possible without the help of Sudanese Optimist. Both of us would like to thank the ambassador for taking the time to do it. He was incredibly nice and kind to us, and we wish him all the best.
We encourage the mainstream media to use this interview, provided that they appropriately credit Sudanese Optimist and The Sudanese Thinker as their source.
On the technical side, I’m loving the magic of Skype and Audio Hijack. May God bless this age of citizen journalism.
I won’t be publishing an analysis of the ambassador’s answers, some of which at the very least to say were… erm, interesting. But then again, I’m not surprised. He is the ambassador after all, and it’s his job to represent the position of the government.
The questions we asked were:
- What do you think are the motives behind the ICC decision?
- What is the current mood in the US/Sudan regarding the ICC indictment? Is it a mood of fear, nervousness, anger, etc…?
- Why do you think there has not been a national, Arab and African court set up to try those who have committed war crimes in Darfur?
- Do you think the expulsion of the 13 NGOs is temporary or permanent? How were they involved?
- Do you think the upcoming elections will still happen?
- What are Al-Bashir’s current options after the ICC indictment? Is it realistic for him to remain president?
- What is the United States’ stance on the ICC indictment? What is your outlook on the diplomatic relations between Sudan and the US?
- Are you optimistic about the future?
Here are the ambassador’s answers. I’ll leave the analysis to you. 
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SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
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This is great. But you guys gave him a bunch of softball questions. Next time you should ask him about the implications for the CPA, the Darfur peace process, his own party’s positions and the government’s failure to provide for the affected populations in Darfur.
Nonetheless, this was an excellent interview and I thought it was very well conducted and very professional. What is next for you two? A show on AlJazeera or something? Excellent job.
Thanks for the feedback AK. Greatly appreciated.
We wanted to ask harder questions, but weren’t allowed as we had to provide the outline of the interview in advance to get the green light. So we basically had to remove some questions, and leave out the ones roughly outlined above.
Plus, we wanted to remain respectful and not end up pissing him off.
I admire Dr. Akec. A wonderful person and diplomat indeed. You could have asked me Drima, I would have hooked you up :-p
Atta boy
Rara
Thank you Sudanese optimists for interviewing the Sudanese Ambassador to the United States, Akec Khoc. Let say that next time you are interviewing any Sudanese Ambassador of the great country on the planet like Sudan, you make sure your voice sound like the voice of true journalists to inspire other young journalist with rising inspiring minds. Otherwise the ambassador’s insightful responses toward your important questions have sent a very strong signal to the rest of Sudanese people who have bent on their knees and said that there is no hope in Sudan today.
1. Omar Bashir just like Saddam should be hung…and according to the Islamic Sharia, this man should be dead a long time ago.
2. What exactly is the differecne b/w North/South Sudanese…I hope this isnt a war b/w Blacks who consider themselves Arabs because they speak Arabic, and other Blacks.
Even in Egypt we have Nubians from Sudan.
Anyways one good advice to you, as a whole to this blog I unfortunatley stumbled upon… Judge yourself before you judge others!
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