Italian author offers GoSS his villa to house its diplomats in Italy

By Manyang Mayom

December 31, 2010 (RUMBEK) – An Italian author, Claudio Zaninoto, has offered of a three-storey villa in the Milan to house diplomats from the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) in Italy.

Zaninoto, accompanied by Bishop Caesar Mazzolari of Rumbek, made the offer of his villa on Wednesday during a meeting with the GoSS President Salva Kiir Mayardit in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan.

Speaking to Catholic Radio Good news on Thursday evening about the meeting with President Salva Kiir, Bishop Mazzolari said that the main purpose of the visit was to present to the president a book on the history of Sudan written by Claudio Zaninoto.

The Bishop further said that the book, whose title is from the Congolese proverb, “When Two Elephants Fight, It Is the Grass that Suffers”, indicates that when North and South Sudan engaged in civil war, ordinary people suffered most.

Bishop Mazzolari said that during the meeting, Zaninoto expressed his willingness to “surrender completely” his villa in Milan, to become “a residence for the diplomatic purposes of Southern Sudan”.

The bishop also spoke about the response of the president saying he was delighted with the offer and asked “if someone offers you something, even a pen, do you turn it down?”

Southern Sudan is headed for a referendum on January 9, which most observers believe will see the south separate from the north to form a new country.

The second north-south civil war, which began in 1983 and ended in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, resulted in the death of two million people and displaced four million.

(ST)